Eight firemen and paramedics worked valiantly to revive you this morning. I marveled and praised their efforts, but tonight the fight was too great and you pass into the great mysterious.

I happened to be the last person to see you conscious. Yesterday afternoon, I had brought you your mail, checking on your dinner plans while taking out your trash.

The day before I had driven to the local Comcast store to replace your cable box that had stopped functioning. That TV had become your entire world in the last few months as your health deteriorated and you lived out of your living room. At the time, I felt a bit guilty that I was taking time from work, but it meant your last 24 hours kept you entertained and connected.

You were always a fighter. Still living on your own, driving and active at 90.

You had survived kidney, bladder, skin and lung cancer.

You had survived years of thrice weekly dialysis treatments.

You had survived two wives passing.

You had survived dangerous flights bringing supplies and troops to the Pacific arena during World War II.

You had survived growing up along the Sacramento River during the Depression.

I'll remember many things about our time together.

You were a regular man of faith, who never preached to us.

You were fiercely independent, but still able to accept our gifts of food and hospitality.

You were private and reserved, but that didn't keep you from laughing heartily with my family.

You were a rightly proud home gardener, and we will cherish your remaining frozen vegetables and blueberries. My wife cooked you many a delicious pie, crumble or cake with your fruit.

You were so proud of your grandchildren, yet you treated my children as more of the same.

You prefered to shop and cook for yourself until the last few months, but still enjoyed many meals and evenings over at our home watching movies and sports with our family.

You always brought a bottle of red wine from your wine of the month club stash with you when you came over for a meal.

You always arrived early, taking off your too tight fitting penny loafers by our front door.

You always sat in our glider, often with the cats coming to greet you.

You were pretty stoic, but your quiet appreciation for our hospitality never went unnoticed.

You were like a little kid on Christmas morning, so eager to open up your stocking gifts.

You were a man of few words who kept things close to the vest, but as the years passed you shared more stories of your past.

Your family didn't reach out to you much in your later years, but that gave us the opportunity to welcome you into our home.

For your 90th birthday, your daughter interviewed you and created a short book "Memories of a Life." The last page captures your Final Thoughts.

"I've lived a good life. I just wish I had some fishing partners now. Since my fishing partners died, I haven't been fishing.

The advice I would give to people is to live day by day. Don't make long distance plans, because they don't always work out. Also keep track of your friends. Don't give up on them.

The secret to happiness is not feeling sorry for yourself...

The thing that is most important in life is leading a Christian life. And keeping Christ in mind. Don't forget about him. He brought me this far, so I can't dump him now."

Your last meal was delivered by Meals on Wheels. I wish your last meal had been one of the four meals a week my wife had been cooking for you lately. She cared for you deeply and she was there for you more than anyone.

Your last words to me were the same as you repeated after every meeting or conversation, "You bet."

It was an honor to know you, sir.

Every name has a history. Most are born with one. It is a name given before you are even known. It is your identity marker all your life, but can you ever say you really earned it?

Nicknames, on the other hand, can be attributed for random reasons but rarely stick unless they somehow fit. My first nickname, "Winci," was given to me in the hospital by nurses and family members who said I winked at them soon after my birth. It conveniently combined letters from my first given names, William and Lincoln. Unfortunately, it was also ripe with rhyming teasing potential "stinky, pinky, dinky" that after much elementary school ridicule motivated me to forcefully change my known name in 3rd grade to Bill. I didn't encourage another nickname for decades after.

When I moved to Portland 18 years ago, I became a partner in a fairly new business called Zimba arts and crafts. I was passionate about art from Africa, especially the Shona stone sculpture found in Zimbabwe. I used to make yearly buying trips there. In the following years, my very first email address created was Zimba32@aol.com (no longer used). My first online poker username on UltimateBet would become Zimba32. Even as my business grew and evolved to the more polished Imba Gallery and Sculpture Garden, the Zimba nickname stuck online.

In the nascent online poker world, I enjoyed having an online identity separate from my real world identity. I appreciated the anonymity, especially when it came to making or losing money playing poker. My real life as small business owner, suburban husband and father were unattached from my online persona. They had no bearing on how I was received. I had moved out West partially out of a desire to escape the highly status filled judgmental East Coast environs.

I found it freeing that I wasn't judged by anything that had come before. My Zimba identity was defined by my online actions alone. The two worlds didn't meet. Whether it was on the forums or at the poker table, Zimba was shaped only by my online actions. As a private and non self-promotional person, I relished redefining myself as Zimba and knowing that that poker world wouldn't follow me home. There was one other important reason why this separation of identities was highly valued.

During the later years of running my gallery and as Zimbabwe continued to plunge into greater trouble and anarchy, I had befriended a Zimbabwean artist and musician. To navigate the highly chaotic and combustible world that was Zimbabwe required establishing some contacts you had to trust. The spiralling inflation, rampant corruption and increasing violence forced businessmen like myself to try to find local contacts to help insulate us from potential harm on our buying trips. While you were there to spend money supporting the artistic community, everyone was trying to survive and took drastic actions. That environment bred a fierce self-motivated perspective that was highly toxic and eventually ruined the relationship with my artist. He couldn't let go of the concept that my gallery and support would ever end and pursued me doggedly for years after. He would call dozens of times a day at home or work. He would send threatening emails insisting I owed him money and needed to keep supporting him. He hired lawyers in Zimbabwe and the US all in a desperate attempt to gain a continuing source of funds for his relatively lavish lifestyle. We got caller ID, stopped answering the phone, hired a lawyer to respond to all contacts and generally became quite defensive. I found any linked open identity online was a new avenue for him to try to pursue me.

I know for many years of my CardRunners Zimba blog, people would question why I never mentioned my real name and even referred to my wife as Mrs. Zimba. Those choices were influenced by my desire to have my online life in the poker world remain unassociated with that episode. As the years have drifted by, I am slowly feeling more confident that episode is drifting into the past. But it also reinforces my belief in the power of the independent Zimba nickname.

Nowadays, some of my information team that I manage refer to me primarily as Z or Zimba. When I network with people in the online poker world, they know of Zimba from CardRunners, PokerCurious, PokerInside, Gosugamers, EpicPoker etc. A couple people I interviewed recently knew of Zimba in the poker world, without knowing that was really me.

You don't have a choice of what proper name is given you, but you often have an influence on what nickname you receive or encourage. Zimba seemed to fit me and I'm proud of the small mark the name has made in the poker world. I'm particularly excited for the future of Zimba. Within the next few months at PokerTrip Enterprises, we will roll out a new site and start to work with some of the biggest brands in poker as legal and regulated online poker returns to the US (Nevada to start). Zimba will once again be seen on the virtual real money tables!

If the first few weeks of my new job are any indication, it will be a struggle to carve out the time and energy to blog as regularly and thoughtfully as I have for many months. Maybe this will force me to learn the art of brevity in expressing myself.

I'll start today by sharing my biggest pot ever won (*so what if it was play chips). I haven't had the time or inclination to play since the new job started, but all the talk of Full Tilt Poker relaunching and U.S. players trying out the software again spurred me to log onto Winamax over the weekend to get in an hour or two of fun.

When you combine freeplay and PLO you are destined for a table full of players who want to play every hand and hate folding. You can certainly nut it up and grind out a consistent if wild swinging positive result, but to really benefit big you have to play looser than you might ordinarily and swing to the fences with the rest of them. This night, players were spraying around buyins like it was election ad dollars. The entire 5 person table was very deep and eventually when I pressed my AAxx double suited hand pre-flop I found the entire table calling my eventual all-in. Unfortunately, in PLO you are a big dog to a table full of random hands, despite having the best individual equity. This night, my hand 'boated' up and I won 30 buy-ins!

On the business side, I'm now managing an information team that contacts, collects and inputs information from poker rooms and casinos across the country. I am tasked with increasing the efficiency of the remote team. I find that while I have no problem increasing my own work rate, managing the part time team will require different solutions. So I am actively seeking outside inspiration.

I wanted to share one such inspiration via a Tweet about d.Mindsets:

Their brief but insightful advice in leading a team was...

Focus on Human Values
Show Don't Tell
Embrace Experimentation
Be Mindful of Process
Bias Toward Action
Radical Collaboration
Craft Clarity

Each instruction requires more research and understanding, but I like their approach and I will explore the concepts further as time allows.

The purpose of life is not to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you lived at all. - Leo Rosten

I'm excited to finally announce my new poker journey. I am joining the team at PokerTrip Enterprises as their Operations Manager. The Las Vegas company runs AllVegasPoker.com and ThePokerAtlas.com, two sites that provide an excellent service for poker players across the country. The timing is ideal because PokerTrip is entering a highly ambitious phase of growth and innovation. Under the stewardship of CEO and WSOP bracelet winner Jon Friedberg, PokerTrip is in the process of a massive expansion and hiring a number of key positions to meet the goals of being the best information resource for poker players. PokerTrip recently became the first marketing affiliate to become licensed for the upcoming regulated Nevada online poker market which has opened many new opportunities for partnerships in the live and online poker world.

And by every crime and kindness, we birth our future. - excerpt from the upcoming movie "Cloud Atlas"

Anyone who has followed my blog knows that I have always had a strong entrepreneurial spirit and that I enjoy participating in early stage growth for promising companies. I have run my own small businesses like the international art gallery, PokerCurious.com, and most recently exploring a fantasy sports venture project over the last 9 months. I have also enjoyed working with small teams that grew sites like CardRunners, Gosugamers.net, PokerInside, RakeMeBack and others. I'm thrilled to be part of a new small and talented team who have a vision to take PokerTrip Enterprises to new heights.

There was considerable interest in the position and I feel a large part of why I was selected for the position is the positivity, dedication, experience and acumen that I have demonstrated over the last seven years in the online poker world. I mention that because I feel it's important that anyone trying to develop their career be consistent in action and image across all communication platforms; be it a prepared CV, your blogs, forum posts, or your tweets. Your image, nobility and experience are constantly on display. For instance, I have never made a penny from the Zimba blog, and yet consistently posting for over five years has led to so many opportunities.

The grass ain't always greener on the other side. It's greener where you water. - excerpt from Justin Bieber's song "As Long As You Love Me"

Although in my role as Operations Manager I will be contributing on many levels within the company, my initial focus will be on managing and growing the information team that populates information for nearly 700 rooms in North America. We strive to be the top source, with the most accurate and up-to-date information, for venues, tournaments and special events for the North American poker world. In addition to the information team, we are currently looking for other positive, experienced and motivated individuals to join our team to help us reach our goals. Other positions that we are looking to fill include a Sys Admin, WEb (Ruby & PHP) Developers, Web/Mobile/Graphic Designers, Affiliate Manager, and a Marketing/Community Manager. If you have any great leads, feel free to email me at Bill@AllVegasPoker.com

Despite the changes in the poker world since Black Friday, I feel quite optimistic about PokerTrip's opportunities and vision for the future. I will be 'watering the lawn' and keeping you updated on my blog.

As was hinted in last week's blog, I was hoping to share my new poker position with you this week but that needs to wait another week. I did fly down to Las Vegas for four days to meet the team and do some training. Besides the job aspects that I'll get into next week, the highlights of the trip were the culinary outings. I also got to check out some Vegas properties I hadn't seen before; The Cosmopolitan, the Aria, Sunset Station and Red Rock Resort.

Highlights of my culinary adventures:

Lotus of Siam - Considered by many to be the best Thai restaurant in Vegas. Although the ambiance is a bit lacking, I met good friend Jeff218 for a nice spicy meal. Be wary of your selection along the 1-10 scale of hotness as the next day it sure 'cleansed' my system. The strip mall Lotus of Siam is found in had two different cop cars attending to two different incidents and it is extremely lively with gay and swinger bars.

I Love Sushi - Although it is less well known amongst the younger poker pro set compared to places like Naked Fish and Sen of Japan, the Henderson-located I Love Sushi is a long time favorite amongst established poker players like Mike Matusow and Phil Gordon. I can honestly say from a sophisticated flavors standpoint, it is the best sushi I have ever eaten. I Love Sushi features fantastic complex sushi dishes with hilarious titles like "screaming orgasm," "I like my ass," and "Your Stomach will hate you later."

China Poblano - Jose Andres' Chinese and Mexican eatery in the Cosmopolitan was a funky lunch meeting place one day. I highly recommend the Shrimp Mojo with poblano chiles. The Cochinita and Carnitas were intensely flavorful, but on the very small portion side as was typical of most of the menu.

Green and Proteins - This chain-looking health food and smoothie/juice bar offered up some tasty, light and uber vegan options for lunch one day. I had the Greek pizza, with the hummus, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, basil and feta spread on wafer thin crisp lavash crackers.

Hougan's Racing Sandwiches - A hole-in-the-wall place with little ambiance or professional signage, but they serve up some amazing hot sandwiches that were reminiscent of the best of east coast Philly steaks and the like.

In and Out Burger - Not a burger chain that has reached the Portland area, so grabbing a burger here on the run is an enjoyed tradition. The fries were on the dry and dull side (yes, I forgot to 'animalize' it)

Zaba's Mexican Grill - A fresher and better ingredient alternative to those who enjoy Chipotle. We had some tasty fish tacos.

I, like many Americans, jumped off the online poker horse 18 months ago as a result of the Black Friday shut down and indictments of Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Ultimate Bet. In the previous five or six years, I had played almost every single day for at least a few minutes. I felt very connected to the game and I enjoyed railing the high stakes games or supporting friends nearly as much as playing my low stakes PLO games. With the largest and most reputable sites shut down to U.S. access on April 15th, 2011, I chose not to venture into the even shadier smaller poker sites that continued to offer real money playing. My time and efforts shifted elsewhere and my desire to play waned as the months passed.

Last week, I saw a Tweet about Winamax that caught my attention. The popular French poker room was now offering freeplay online poker to the U.S. market with the intention of transitioning to real money offerings once they became licensed in regulated areas of the U.S. Although numerous sites have offered freeplay, Winamax intrigued me more due to some positive reviews and my never previously having contact with them. On their website, they feature an amusing promo video (linked example isn't in English) that emphasized that it's not the cards you're dealt, but how you play them that matter. I downloaded their software and was immediately impressed by the design, organization, lobby and interface. Their quick seat option headed me swiftly to playing with my 50.00 default play chips.

All the memories came flooding back of playing with loose passives, maniacs and nits. Okay, who am I kidding, I didn't really find any nits at PLO. Still a prisoner to my sense of proper bankroll management, I worked my way up quickly through 2, 5, 10 to 20 buy-in levels before I saw play improve markedly. Then a funny thing happened. I played someone heads-up that was every bit as good as any player I had played on Full Tilt Poker in the $50 or $100 games. They too were playing play chip poker, but with an aggression, range awareness, and unpredictability that I had rarely seen amongst freeplay circles. Credit to Winamax for their software, design and interface. This felt every bit the same as playing for real money.

Without the payoff of making real money, I doubt I will continue to invest a ton of time playing. But I will say I quickly fell back into similar patterns of play of years gone by. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to outwit players and watching my stack grow. With the launch of Nevada regulated online poker only months away, the dream of playing legal real money online poker again in the U.S. is no longer an endless pipe dream. Time is coming for me to get my game in gear.

This week during the G2E gaming conference in Las Vegas, Dan from Pokerati tweeted "These are all over @G2Evegas every 100' or so. Hope to see more in poker rooms in effort to clean up the game. pic.twitter.com/tLmh56qh"



Although Dan's reference was to cleaning up germs that are readily spread through the communal play of poker, after reading about the latest poker world scandal I wish that cleaning up the game of poker could be handled similarly. The poker world is no stranger to scandal. I spent the last couple weeks detailing the Full Tilt Poker scandal aftermath. This particular scandal I'm referring to is the International Stadium Poker Tour's (ISPT) lying to the public about having advertised and promoted a $30 million, then a‚¬20 million guarantee for the 2013 Wembley stadium live poker tournament billed as the largest in the world.

The ISPT first announced the event for mid-2012, moving to September 2012 and now formally promoted and scheduled for May 31 - June 6, 2013 at Wembley stadium in London. According to PokerStrategy, one of the main backers, Laurent Tapie of GBT's attempted FTP purchasing fame, confirmed in 2011 that the prize pool of $30 million was guaranteed and reserved in a bank account.

As promotions and marketing for the ISPT event has picked up in recent months, there has been massive backtracking in light of estimates that they will fall far short of their original hopes for 30,000 entrants.

The clear purpose of advertising a guarantee is to draw players who see value in an event that they might not otherwise enter. As the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event recently learned, poker players don't take kindly to being defrauded. The benefit of drawing players in under false pretenses can be wiped away quickly, massively undermining your reputation when you don't deliver. Unfortunately, the same methods of explanation for the changes are occurring with the ISPT as their Chief Executive Prosper Masquelier denied the guarantee existed and when pressed claimed that the guarantee was more of an estimate. Unfortunately for the ISPT, their 'modification' efforts have been poor as their own website has previously advertised the guarantee and their own ISPT press conference in Paris clearly announced a guarantee 40 seconds into the video.

To a skeptical poker audience familiar with other bait and switch tactics, this is the worst possible news if they plan to capture even half (15,000) the players they originally envisioned. Trust is a major issue with players who already have issues with ISPT's massive rake on their buy-in, having to bring their own laptop when initially it would have been provided, weather issues for an outdoor tournament as well as timing that will likely coincide with the start of the 2013 WSOP.

I would pass on some words of advice to those associated with the ISPT or anyone putting on a poker tournament.

1. Don't be creative with the truth. There are many ways to promote, market and advertise a tournament, especially one as unique as the ISPT is suggesting. But the word guarantee can't be misinterpreted. A guarantee in any language is a firm absolute promise to deliver exactly what you say. If you can't deliver, don't ever use the word guarantee at any stage of your promotions. While a business project can evolve and change, the underlying identity and ethics shouldn't.

2. Be true to your word. Nothing devalues your brand than blatantly lying and then covering up for previous lies.

3. Caution to those that sign their names to promote this event. Popular and well liked poker players Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Liz Lieu, Michael Mizrachi, and Sam Trickett have all signed deals to be ambassadors promoting the ISPT event. As Prahlad Friedman, Joe Sebok, Annie Duke, and Phil Hellmuth learned from promoting UB, and the entire Full Tilt Poker pros learned, taking a check and promoting a site links you to the activities of that company. Your reputation should suffer greatly if that company is defrauding players.

As federal and state authorities struggle to push forward legislation to regulate and legalize online poker, it is essential that the poker world self-police itself to offer the most upstanding fundamental rules of fairness for its promoters and players. Don't ever use the word guarantee unless you can 100% deliver. You are only setting yourself up for failure and inevitable discredibility. Poker players are savvy enough to see through your deception and it only brings further disrepute on an industry in desperate need of a thorough "cleaning up."

After an intense week of digesting lots of videos, interviews, articles and forum reaction, it's time for me to give my conclusions on the lengthy Full Tilt Poker saga. On September 7th, @taylorcaby tweeted "As I get older I've realized that people do seem to 'get what they deserve.' A lifetime is a long time." I found the comment intriguing and responded that I thought it would make a great blog topic to expand further on his thoughts. Although he didn't respond, I found his comment to be very apropos regarding my thoughts on what to take away from the entire FTP experience. These thoughts have simmered for months and only recently were reinforced by the Andy Bloch and Howard Lederer Full Tilt Poker interviews. This will be a lengthy blog, but one with a goal of trying to gain some closure.

Before I jump into my observations, let me say I'm no expert on Full Tilt Poker. I never worked for Full Tilt Poker and I have no inside sources. The perspective I share is from someone who was a former player, a former affiliate, a former poker content manager responsible for reporting on industry news and mostly in my personal blog capacity to bring my experience and common sense to different elements of the poker world.

"It's only weird if it doesn't work." - lyric from Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious"

We live in a world dominated by those who come out on top. Your results dictate our perceptions. Successful companies and successful people generally revel in the adulations of the public regardless of the technique they took in achieving their goals. But if that dynamic changes and you fail or go broke, the tides turn and everything is scrutinized.

The story of Full Tilt Poker is a complex one and yet very simple at its core. Some notable poker players began an online poker business to leverage their live success. Much as they did at the poker table, they were strategically looking for edges to exploit so they could build a business and enrich themselves further. Instead of trying to incorporate a diverse set of experienced business professionals into their ownership and management team, they chose members from the clubby and informal poker community. That same poker world that is rife with non-conformists, big risk-takers, and slackers. It is also a world full of stories of making it rich, being cheated, overall degeneracy, and money changing hands without much if any literal or moral collateral.

The leadership structure of Full Tilt Poker was kept simple; calling for a yearly election of five Board of Directors (BoD) to guide the company. As Howard Lederer admitted very early on, after Phil Ivey resigned from lack of interest and Perry Friedman resigned due to troubles working with CEO Ray Bitar, Full Tilt Poker never held any yearly elections or ever filled all five seats (the same 4 members served every year until Black Friday). Poker industry commentator Bill Rini noted in his insightful interview reaction blogs (1 and 2), that despite upgrading their technology, facilities and numbers of employees to handle their increased success, FTP never prioritized improving their professionalism and oversight of their business from a systems and oversight perspective.

According to Lederer, the BoD played a loose hands-off advisory role; unlike most boards that emphasize outside members with experience and expertise to enhance the company skill set and contribute important strategic decisions while holding management accountable. The essential checks and balances necessary to manage a business doing hundreds of millions in business were never put in place. Howard Lederer confirms this when he admits his greatest regret was that Full Tilt Poker continued to operate with an outdated California LLC start-up geared Operating Agreement despite the company moving to Ireland (with sizable Canadian operations), leaving the largely American ownership very much removed from daily operations.

In spite of this shortcoming, three key decisions propelled Full Tilt Poker to become the second largest online poker room in the world. First, early on they seized on the idea to recruit and promote the best and coolest poker pros; encompassed in the classic slogan "Learn, Chat and Play with the Pros." Secondly, Full Tilt Poker invested heavily in their software, features and promotions to create a great atmosphere and playing experience for poker players of all levels. Lastly and most importantly, when the United States passed the UIGEA in 2006 Full Tilt Poker chose not to stop serving the U.S. market, largest by far in the world, unlike many of its competitors. That risky decision helped them gain tremendous market share and revenue giving them momentum for years to follow. Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars both became the elephants of the online poker world using their quickly increasing revenues and marketing to largely marginalize the dozens of online poker room competitors.

With their improved financial situation after the UIGEA, Full Tilt Poker began ownership disbursements of roughly $5 million a month starting in April of 2007. Those monthly ownership disbursement eventually grew to roughly $10 million a month all the way up to April 1, 2011, two weeks before Black Friday. Over those four years, roughly $444 million was distributed to the 23 owners despite poker industry analysts asserting that Full Tilt Poker was largely insolvent the last 12-18 months leading to Black Friday.

The reasons for Full Tilt Poker's arguable insolvency all relate to the decision to skirt UIGEA legislation. The U.S. Department of Justice was pressuring payment processors seen as doing business with online gambling companies. When firm cases were established, large sums were seized. In the face of increasing commercial success, Full Tilt Poker chose to consider it a cost of doing business and kept finding new riskier payment processors and depositing methods. Although no definitive report has been made public, there are some indications that $115 million was lost to government seizure pre and post Black Friday. Another poker reporter, Diamond Flush, claimed that three seizures alone in 2009 amounted to $100 million in lost customer/company funds. Then there is the 2008 case of third party payment processor, Intabill (run by Daniel Tzvetkoff) who stole $42 million of Full Tilt processed funds. In a cruel taste of irony, Tzvetkoff was fingered to the FBI for his malfeasance by Full Tilt Poker with Tzvetkoff then turning the tables to provide insight and evidence that helped build the eventual DoJ Black Friday case.

Around November 2010, in the face of a deteriorating operating environment, the decision was made to start crediting player accounts despite the charges not going through to player's bank accounts. In the following six months 130,000 customers would be credited with deposits of over $134 million. The collection backlog was eventually worked down to around $100 million when Black Friday shut down American operations. Lederer later claimed that the eventual cash coverage report determined that only $10 million of that money was ever possible to recover.

Mathew Parvis, the PokerNews Chief Creative Officer who interviewed Lederer, reinforced the notion of an overwhelmed company. "Full Tilt Poker grew to levels that nobody, including the owners themselves, could ever have imagined. Everyone, with Ray Bitar leading the way, was in way over their heads but were all too stubborn to realize that the company would have been much better off in the hands of successful, qualified executives. The whole group of 23 was making a killing with distribution checks, so with so much money coming in, even with all the red flags and questions in regard to Bitar and others qualifications to lead the board, and the membership simply turned a blind eye. This was their biggest mistake and what Full Tilt Poker customers and the poker community should be appalled by."

"It's easier to believe the bad stuff." Julia Roberts' character in Pretty Woman

My biggest reaction after having watched the seven Lederer Files interviews, read Andy Bloch's interview and the poker community reaction was that I had witnessed the ultimate blame game in action.

For those unfamiliar, there is an actual Blame Game. I've condensed the rules for your enjoyment.

1. Anyone playing is never allowed to take responsibility for anything that ever happens.
2. Someone else or multiple others must be given the blame for what has gone wrong, regardless if they are actually responsible, or even involved in the situation.
3. A motive or reason for the behavior of the recipient of the blame must be created; whether its based on facts doesn't matter.
4. Mixing in indignation and vitriol can add points to your blaming score for its intensity..
5. Blame can be attributed through any convenient communication medium: interview, Twitter, blog, article, telephone call or email. Each medium has its advantage in speed and inability to respond or debate the blaming.
6. Getting other players to join you in assigning blame, gets you more points. There is power in numbers and your new blaming community can commiserate at their collective misfortuned to to the blamed. The community will help you avoid introspection or the misfortune of taking responsibility for your actions.

In the wake of the indictment, eventual collapse, settlement and sale of Full Tilt Poker, people are looking for who to assign blame. Most people profess outrage and disgust as they attribute blame. My desire is to highlight the main players who deserve our scrutiny. In my conclusion, I will share my own thoughts on responsibility.

According to Howard Lederer, there are 23 owners of Full Tilt Poker. We can start there:

Chris Ferguson - Largest owner and founder (19.2%). He earned $87 Million in distributions, but eventually only received $25 Million. He was good friends with Ray Bitar from before FTP's creation and Chris was the main reason Ray Bitar was named and remained CEO the entire life of FTP despite stiff opposition at times. He is said to have never wanted distributions, insisting they would only weaken the company. He preferred living humbly and gave most of his eventual distributions to his African charity. After Black Friday, he gave back $14 million of distributions that were in transit to help the company's cash flow. He loaned Erick Lindgren $2 million right before Black Friday.

Howard Lederer - Board of Directors/Owner/Former President (8.6%) He received $42.5 Million is disbursements. He owed FTP $700k and paid it back after BF. According to Lederer and others, Howard was extremely involved in FTP until the move to Ireland and professes ignorance of all fraudulent activity leading to insolvency and Black Friday. He painted the picture of being the most passionate owner to see that some positive resolution came after Black Friday. Outwardly, he chose not to focus on blame, but seeking a solution to the predicament. His interview deflects much personal responsibility while shedding light and blame on Ray Bitar, the CFO's, and other owners (Phil Ivey, Phil Gordon, Perry Friedman, John Juanda, Erick Lindgren and others).

In his lengthy interview, Lederer tried to communicate a clear narrative of not caring who was at fault for making FTP break, but that it was a terrible situation that had to get fixed and that he invested himself fully in seeing it done. Although a believable narrative, that doesn't begin to address how FTP arrived at that point. Many assert that Lederer, as a BoD member, sizable owner , and former very involved President should've been more aware and accepted more blame, rather than doling it out to everyone else. Few doubt the intelligence of Lederer, but very intelligence undermines many of his "I Don't Know" interview answers (I Don't Know parody video, Who's On First parody video, Lederer Confesses parody video). Except for a couple minutes here and there, Lederer seemed to lack the humility, culpability or apology that most felt the situation deserved. As Lederer's harshest critic, Daniel Negreanu insisted that the poker world didn't deserve Lederer's silence, but instead found it "unconsionable[sic], no excuse, they deserved their money and explanations."

In Lederer's words "I was the owner of a company that got itself into a really bad situation, but I didn't actively create that situation. I didn't ever approve any fraudulent reports that were sent off to Alderney or our customers. I went to Dublin on April 17th to try to figure out what was going on and when I found a problem I committed myself to trying to fix it. and I made a decision on that day, the 21st, the only thing that mattered to me until i was either successful or completely unsuccessful that I was gonna try to use the assets of the company to affect a deal to get our customers paid. It wasn't all up to me, but I knew whatever I could do I would.

As an owner of Full Tilt Poker, I took and take full responsibility for what happened. It wasn't right and it caused a lot of pain and suffering and in some cases inconvenience for 3 million customers. That wasn't right. For that I'm truly sorry."

Ray Bitar - CEO (7.6%) $40.8 million in disbursement. Bitar ran a day-trading business before FTP. Generally considered overmatched with the skill set necessary for running what Full Tilt Poker would become. He was seen as passionate, a hard worker, who was willing to do what others weren't to grow the business. All sources indicate he is most responsible for the fraudulent decisions that brought FTP to Black Friday and its eventual collapse, closure, and sale to PokerStars leaving all owners with nothing. Charges of nepotism follow him for having hired numerous family members to positions at Full Tilt Poker. Even after Black Friday, Bitar continued to collect roughly $200k+/mo.

Phil Ivey - Owner (?%) The most popular pro on Team Full Tilt. He owed millions to FTP in loans as of BF. Considered lazy by other owners. Tried to bring in a buyer after Black Friday, then sued when his frustrations grew at not being released to work with another poker site. Despite a very negative portrayal by Howard Lederer, Bill Rini notes that Ivey's name being associated with Full Tilt brought in far more money than Ivey took out of the company (e.g. most popular/used pro, best click thru ads).

John Juanda - Owner (3rd biggest %). Disbursements are explicity stated but should be north of $40 million compared with other sizable owners. He owed $250k to the company. He belonged in the anti-Bitar camp who felt he should be replaced and wasn't to be trusted.

Andy Bloch - Owner (?%) In June 2011, he joined those seeking to replace Ray Bitar and the board, but felt deceived and overwhelmed by the position.

Perry Friedman - Owner (?%) and on the early Board of Directors. He was also an early developer on the site. He was the first to resign after having doubts and problems with Ray Bitar. He took a very hands off approach in resulting years.

Rafe Furst - Owner (2.6%) He received $11.7 million in disbursements. He was one of the Board of Directors until resigning after Black Friday and FTP losing the Alderney license.

Phil Gordon - Owner (?%) He belonged to the anti-Bitar camp and attempted to oust Bitar post Black Friday while vehemently trying to ferret out who was to blame for FTP's predicament.

J.K. Scheinberg - Small non-poker player owner member in the anti-Bitar camp. In June 2011, he assumed the very short lived CEO role when Phil Gordon's group temporarily removed Bitar from office. It last five days before he capitulated and went home.

Gus Hansen - Owner. Hands off until after Black Friday where he demonstrated his acumen and passion to see the players repaid.

Tom Dwan - The newest and youngest owner. He wasn't involved in the operations, but heavily in promotions due to his popularity with younger players. Early on, he infamously promised to give up all his earnings from FTP (over a million) to help pay back players if FTP didn't eventually make good. He owed FTP around $1.5 million and agreed to pay it back in August 2012 if FTP was still having difficulty finding an eventual buyer.

Erik Seidel - Owner (?%) John Juanda asserted and Howard Lederer confirmed that Full Tilt Poker stole $5.4 million from Seidel at some point. Despite that, Lederer insisted that Seidel was a consistent quiet advocate seeking that all customers get paid.

Erick Lindgren - Owner. Fun-loving but troubled gambler. Chris Ferguson loaned him $2 mill April 7th, days before Black Friday to help him settle another debt. FTP accidently wired him another $2 mill, that he has yet to pay back. Lindgren has garnered a very troubled reputation as a welcher of sports and fantasy sports bets.

Allen Cunningham - Owner (?%) No mention is made of his ownership role.

Patrik Antonius - Owner (?%) Heavily used in promotions and popular amongst players. No mention is made of his ownership role.

Full Tilt Poker

CFO's - The Chief Financial Officer of any company is largely responsible for reporting the proper accounting and financial health of the company. As such they are critical in overseeing any key decisions made to weaken or compromise the health of a company and deserve significant responsibility in the failure of Full Tilt Poker. While I don't have much information on the history of several FTP CFO's, I'm told that Gil Coranado was influential and largely responsible for setting up many of the systems and may have helped perpetrate the various financial frauds. There is also brief mention by Lederer of Alan ?., a previous CFO mentioned as likable and competent.

FTP Management - I have no knowledge of what other key executives were aware of the various company frauds and abuses, although some would have to have been instrumental in carrying out actions dictated by upper management. Nelson Burtnick, head of Full Tilt payment processing, is an example of an employee who was complicit with some of the fraudulent actions. Management and employees always seemed to struggle in the face of ownership directives that 'big names' were to be treated differently.

Outside of FTP

FTP Loanees - Despite Howard Lederer's insistence that there was a 'culture of poker' which included regular loaning of money to notable pros. The cavalier way in which Full Tilt Poker handled and tried to collect loans it gave various poker pros was highly unprofessional and irresponsible. Sizable loans by a company shouldn't be authorized by staff, the CEO Ray, or even the board, but rather be authorized by shareholders who bear the ultimate responsibility. With that in mind, I mention a few of the non-owner notable poker pros who reportedly owed or still owe FTP money: (I'm told the list is much bigger)

David Oppenheim - owed money
David Benyamine - at one point owed millions
Barry Greenstein - owed $150k, intending to pay back the new owner PokerStars
Mike Matusow - was known to have owed FTP money at various points.

Alderney (AGCC) As the main licensing body for Full Tilt Poker, they had responsibility to ensure proper capital and financial health to maintain their gaming license. Some claim they didn't maintain proper oversight, while others insist that Full Tilt Poker falsified and forged records to create a healthy business picture. Should they have dug deeper or done independent verification? Howard Lederer claims the AGCC was responsible to indicate if FTP was financially solvent for their licenses, but in post-Black Friday negotiations even the AGCC seemed unsure of their own standards by initially stating $300 million and then $150 million in capital was acceptable for customer responsibilities. It remains unclear what was the proper role and responsibility of Alderney.

U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) The DoJ was charged with enforcing the 2006 UIGEA legislation. Their uneven investigations, seizures and enforcement caused havoc for online poker rooms. Their efforts made players feel criminal when only payment processors were strictly illegal. Their actions ultimately held hostage poker players money. Representing a law that was sneakily passed and mostly unpopular, The DoJ ultimately got a large settlement of $731 million from PokerStars.

"Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does." - Jean-Paul Sartre

The title of this blog sensationally claims we all deserve responsibility. It is an unpopular message in a culture and society that prefers to deflect blame. The blame game is a big and serious one. But if we are to ever learn from the past, we must accept our role in it.

- The 23 owners of Full Tilt Poker who received great wealth but didn't actively participate or question deserved what they got.

- The 23 owners who refused to communicate clearly or accept deals shortly after Black Friday out of greed deserved what they got.

- The Board of Directors who took a hands off role, not monitoring, questioning, or leading appropriately, deserved what they got.

- FTP Management and employees who followed orders or put out statements that may have been illegal or violated business ethics deserved what they got.

- Red Pros who profited and enjoyed the benefits of status deserved what they got.

- The AGCC who didn't insist on segregated funds or audit carefully enough deserved what they got.

- Around 130,000 players who deposited over $130 million but weren't debited from their accounts deserve what they got.

- Three million customers/players who played on a poker site that was in violation of UIGEA, documented funds seizures, and poor customer service, deserved what they got.

As history has indicated, what devalues people and companies the most is not their actions, but their resulting cover-ups and lies. Humans have an amazing capacity for forgiveness. They also have an amazing capacity to avoid, lie, and deflect. As Bill Rini and vocal critic Daniel Negreanu have stated, FTP mishandled so many aspects of their misdeeds.

Rini's suggested FTP statement that was never made "While the board and I had no knowledge of Ray's actions, we are the board of directors and that means that the moral and ethical responsibility falls on us. We didn't do a good enough job protecting the company, protecting the investors, protecting our employees, or protecting our customers from the actions of a rogue executive who violated every principle we stand for."

Negreanu's suggest FTP statement to players "I'm terribly sorry for those players who haven't received their funds yet and while I'm unsure what will happen at this point, I can assure you that FTP will do everything it possibly can to make the players whole."

Rini's suggested follow up statement "We realize we've made some statements after Black Friday which we have since found to be untrue. We relied on information provided by members of management who did not provide us with an honest picture of the company's finances. Those people have been removed from their management roles, we have a new team of people auditing the company, and we are getting to the bottom of this."

In the end, I'm not saying that all injustices that occur are our fault. It isn't our fault if someone tries to lie or defraud us (e.g. your funds remain safe and secure, funds are segregated, our company is financially healthy). If we accept their words without questioning, then we also accept partial responsibility. It is our responsibility to be more vigilant. Ignorance is no excuse. If we profited, we are complicit.

If I drive to the local store to get some groceries and a drunk driver hits me, am I at fault? It is easy to blame them, but we live in a world where every action we take has inherent and potential risks. We need to be responsible for putting ourselves in situations where harm can come our way.

In that context, I got what I deserved. We all got what we deserved. And we deserve better.

Having survived last week's reaching and passing 666,666 views of my blog, I'm ready to tackle a new subject...

Tuesday the poker world buzz surrounded the release of the first two parts (Part 1, Part 2) of Howard Lederer's first interview in nearly two years covering the Full Tilt Poker saga. There are seven total planned interviews to be posted this week. There are many ways I could share my thoughts, but I decided to analyze the interview process by asking even more questions.

Who - Mathew Parvis, former Editor in Chief of PokerNews and current Head of Product/Chief Creative Officer, conducts the interview.

- Why was Parvis, not a regular or experienced interviewer, chosen to conduct the pivotal extensive interview?

To his credit, Parvis has seemed well researched and prepared to ask many detailed questions. To his detriment, his phrasing, challenging Lederer's answers and pertinent follow-up questions have been lacking so far.

Howard Lederer looks considerably older and grayer. He is still heavy set and was dressed in jeans and a striped button down shirt.

- What does his casual attire with seemingly no makeup indicate about his current or desired image in the poker community?

On Twitter, respected ex-FBI agent and nonverbal communications expert, @navarrotells, weighed in with some thoughts.

- Who else was in the room?

Having a camera person, extra crew, witnesses and possible Lederer support there could have affected the atmosphere. Logistically it might have been more difficult, but having everyone kicked out, cameras concealed, and the interviewer positioned on a couch to the side might have presented a more conducive environment for a more revealing Lederer.

What - A nearly seven-hour interview was conducted that breaks Howard Lederer's silence over Full Tilt and Black Friday. The first two half hour edited segments have been presented with the rest to follow throughout the week. Having such a long interview seemed like a great opportunity for the poker community to get many longed for answers. Unfortunately, despite Lederer trying to answer all questions, he is often found 'couching' criticism of any other people, professing ignorance of some key details or forgetful of key issues like his contract, dates and important company governances.

- Why is Lederer allowed to pull his punches, when the graphic truth or his honest perceptions would go a long way to attributing proper responsibility and possibly begin to heal the poker community?

- What were the parameters for the interview?

- What subjects were off target?

- Did all questions have to be pre-submitted or approved?

Making clear from the outset what subjects could and couldn't be talked about would be helpful to the viewers.

Where - I initially remarked on Twitter at the odd choice of the hotel room at the Palazzo as the setting.

- Why have the reflective window be Lederer's background?

I found the reflections of lighting equipment, interviewer, and cameraman quite distracting and awkward. As Lederer, who suffers from back pain, leaned consistently in his chair the Venetian casino signage was regularly visible in the background, almost as a not so subtle ad.

- Why was the 43rd floor of the Palazzo chosen, when the owner, Sheldon Adelson, has been a very vocal opponent of online poker and any legislation to advance the cause?

When - The interview was conducted on Saturday, September 8th. We are told that now that Full Tilt has been sold to PokerStars and a company settlement with the DOJ has been made, it's finally an appropriate time for some long awaited answers.

- Why now when there are ongoing civil charges to be resolved against Full Tilt owners (e.g. confiscation of assets and damages) that may prevent Lederer from being more revealing?

- What are the explicit reasons for no communications until now?

- Why couldn't some reasonable if compromised communication have happened in the interim?

How and Why - Each person who views the interview series will come away with different impressions of the interview technique or Lederer's veracity. Lederer's answers have already ranged from transparency to obliqueness, clarity to forgetfulness, acknowledgment to denial.

We have seen Lederer admit what he considers his greatest regret; that Full Tilt Poker was a California LLC, but a Dublin company utilizing a 2003 start-up operating agreement that was badly in need of updating. Lederer admitted that the poor structural oversight was a result of inexperience and laziness. I think most people's assumed "Lederer's greatest regret" would have been the hundreds of millions of dollars from players and customers that was badly managed and wrongly kept from them since Black Friday. Hopefully he will address that issue in future segments.

The extensive Lederer interview is an opportunity for the poker community. Interviews can serve many purposes. Some are conducted to inform and educate. Others are there for entertainment alone. Interviews can reveal great truth or advance propaganda. The final impact is on each of us, as none of us knows the full truth. Evaluating each question and answer along with their corresponding motivation can bring us much further to getting the most out of any interview.

I'll be checking out the final five interview segments to see if my impressions evolve or more questions surface. I've heard that TwoPlusTwo has been granted a follow-up interview opportunity with Howard Lederer that could fill in many of the missing holes from this interview series. For the poker community, at the very least, the interview is better very late than never.

*** Update - Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 are now up.

On Monday, millions of websites that point to GoDaddy DNS servers went down. The Twitter account @AnonymousOwn3r claimed credit for the attack, having previously claimed successful attacks on Facebook and FBI/DOJ related sites.

I wondered what are the motivations for someone to hack others and came up with this list:

1. Profit - Steal financial information or your identity that can be used in financial crimes.
2. Challenge - They try to see how much they can accomplish/get away with.
3. Use your Computer - Harness the computing power, hide behind your computer's identity or use it to store illegal material like child porn or pirated material.
4. Attention - High profile attacks bring lots of quick attention, giving a quick sense of power and celebrity.
5. Spying - Having insight into what friends, family, co-workers or companies are saying.
6. Revenge - Feeling persecuted or slighted can lead one to target sites or individuals to be hacked.
7. Disobedience - Subversive hacking can reveal secrets or undermine perceived unjust corporate or state entities.
8. Productive Hacks - Hacking for the express purpose of demonstrating and reporting vulnerabilities will help fix holes for the future and prevent more malicious hacking.

It is often a combination of these factors that leads one to hack. Watching @AnonymousOwn3r feed, it was apparent that they were enjoying the power and attention that came from the attack. Their ego was stroked by having accomplished this challenge. They responded to most tweets and retweeted any mentions. They delayed in giving a concrete duration or specific motivation for the hack attack. Later they would show that even a large internet company like GoDaddy has many SQL injection vulnerabilities that using hacked servers as bots abused. The hack attack affected roughly 72 million websites, although company officials delayed in giving an explanation and tried to blame "corrupted router data tables."

I've only ever known a couple people who got involved in hacking. Both were disaffected teens who felt alienated by society. One was a neighbor who hacked into her local high school website and exacted retribution on an ex boyfriend on Facebook and elsewhere. She went on to turn the skills to more productive uses and eventually was hired to help the high school build a better site.

The other inadvertent hacker sadly committed suicide. I met him in the poker world. He discovered a glitch/hack on Ultimate Bet that allowed him to consistently make money in heads up matches. Despite my advice to report the issue or refuse to exploit it, the lure of seemingly free money was too great for him. He abused it and eventually was caught.

Both were bright and likable enough young people. They unfortunately channeled their talents to undermining the established online environment. While their motivations may vary, in a digital world hackers will continue to pop up to express a dissatisfaction with the status quo.