Eric Morris Blog

I am not sure if many of you are aware that there is a serious problem going on that should be of concern to anyone who enjoys playing online poker.

The problem I am referring to is Online Gaming Processing, which includes funding accounts at any of your favorite poker rooms. Most of you have probably experienced quite a bit of difficult when trying to fund your accounts. It is getting more and more difficult to do so and unless the US Government amends the UIGEA or regulates online gaming it’s only going to become tougher. Most players do not realize how many problems online poker rooms have with processing right now. This goes for both deposits and withdraws. Your favorite poker sites are having millions and millions of dollars confiscated from their sites because of the processors they are using. The most common way of funding an account is via credit or debit card. Now here is where things become interesting. Without getting too complicated, let me explain! Let’s say John Doe, who has never played online poker before, decides to finally deposit at site XYZ. He most likely will deposit anywhere from $25.00 to $100.00. The amount John is trying to deposit is the first problem. New and established players should never deposit using a round number. This is a huge red flag. Anyone making a deposit should ALWAYS use an abstract amount. For example, instead of $100.00 make it $103.57. After all how many times have you made a purchase online and the amount has come out to a round number? Not very often. You will have a much better chance of getting your funds through if you take the above into consideration. I am not saying this is always going to work, but have a much better chance if you are smart about funding accounts.

Another problem most of you are not aware of is the CHARGEBACK. For those of you who do not know what I am talking about, let me explain. A chargeback is when a player funds his/her account and later decides he/she does not want to part with the money lost. He/she then calls the credit card company and makes some type of BS claim that their credit card was compromised. The bank then refunds the money and the site in question has the funds clawed back. So, for example, let’s sat John Doe deposits $100.00 and loses the entire amount while playing poker online. John will then call the bank and state he never used that card and the bank will do minimum investigating before crediting his card back with the $100. What John and most people who conduct this type of behavior fail to understand is that it hurts US the players more then the actual site. The reason being is that now the processor has been flagged. Worst case scenario is that the processor is shut down and most often all the money is seized. So the more the John Doe’s of the world chargeback the more difficult it is for the Poker sites to find new processors to fund your accounts. Pretty soon the sites will be out of options and anyone who enjoys playing online poker will be out of luck. I am not saying that this is going to happen, but it is a distinct possibility and one that everyone should be aware of.

What I ask of you is to help educate your friends and fellow poker players alike. Let’s not let the Government have all the control and take away a game we all love to play.

Please feel free to pass this along and comment good or bad.

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Bluff Media, publishers of Bluff and Fight Magazine’s will be celebrating the start of the WSOP and UFC 114 by throwing a party on May 28th at the nightclub Blush, inside the Wynn. Come party with both Poker Pro’s and UFC Fighters.

We will have a VIP list and if you would like to be put on the list (no guarentees), please send an email to eric@bluffmedia.com.

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Since the end of the 09 WSOP, I have read several articles regarding Bluff owning the digital media rights that are 100% incorrect. The only thing factual is that we do own the rights.

Quotes from the likes of Jeff Shulman stating that we outbid Card Player for these rights and they were not interested in acquiring them is 100% inaccurate. Seems this quote was picked up by other poker magazines and media outlets and has been embraced as verbatim without checking on the facts.

The facts are that Card Player did own the rights in 06 and upon completion of their contract Harrah’s/WSOP approached Bluff inquiring if we would be interested in the digital media rights. For reasons I will not go into Card Player was not offered or even given the opportunity to bid on the rights. As I stated, Harrah’s came to us based on our radio broadcast of the 06 WSOP final tables and felt we could produce a better all around product. If you look back at the WSOP site in 06, I am sure most would agree that this was the case. I am not saying we didn’t have our own challenges, but there is no question that people visiting the WSOP site as of 07 saw a vast improvement.

Additionally, as most know Bluff produced the the live web stream of WSOP final tables over the previous 3 years. This deal was with ESPN and not Harrah’s. This was not a licensing deal and no money was exchanged for these rights. We absorbed all the costs to produce the event and provided ESPN360 with content for their site.

I know some of you reading this blog are probably thinking, “who cares,” and to an extent I agree. However, when incorrect information is being passed along that has to do with our company, I believe the people who “do care” have the right to know the facts.

To somewhat change the subject, I have received many emails and personally asked how I feel about one company owning the rights to something that should be open to all media outlets. I can tell you that when Card Player owned these rights I was absolutely against it. If you remember in 06 no other poker media company was able to put up chip counts or do any real updates from the floor. In fact, if anyone media outlet crossed the ropes they were made to back to the viewing area. To me this was totally unacceptable, but we had no other choice then to abide by their rules.

When Bluff took over the rights we did have to pay a rather large license fee. This is a fact. Because we paid for these rights, we had no other choice but to protect our investment. However, we did allow other media outlets to make 1 hourly report and show chip counts of the top 10 players per event. Photographing was also allowed to a certain extent. In 06 this was not the case. If we were not charged for the rights by Harrah’s, we would have had no problem with other media outlets putting up as much website content as they wanted. So, I do understand and recognize other poker media’s complaints. One thing I do not understand is how someone who once owned both the WSOP and WPT rights can complain about this and then threaten to throw the most coveted trophy in poker into the garbage as a means of protest? This seems awfully hypocritical as I am truly at a loss for words regarding the comment.

Have a good Weekend all!

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Want to get famous for your online poker playing skill? BluffMagazine.com and Carbon Poker are proud to announce the launch of Team Bluff at Carbon Poker. Team members get tons of great benefits, in addition to receiving the best Carbon Poker deposit bonus out there.

Becoming a member of Team Bluff is easy. Simply sign up for Carbon Poker through our exclusive links on Bluffmagazine.com. Team Bluff members are exclusively eligible for weekly and monthly prizes. In addition, the player who wins the overall Team Bluff leaderboard will be featured in Bluff Magazine.

The top five players on the Team Bluff leaderboard each week will team up to root a player on in the Big Sunday Carbon tournament. The player who wins the weekly leaderboard gets freerolled into the big Sunday tournament. The players who finish #2 through #5 on the leaderboard will all get a piece of the winner in the tournament. You might find yourself cheering on the guy that put a bad beat on you the day before. In addition to the weekly prizes, the monthly leaderboard winner will get to play a Team Bluff Pro heads up for $500 cash. Team Bluff members are also eligible for prizes like free subscriptions to Bluff Magazine, as well as Bluff gear.

Maybe the most fun part of being a member of Team Bluff is the exclusive right to play in Team Bluff “Kamikaze” freeroll Sit n’ Goes. A Kamikaze freeroll could happen at any time. If you’re a member of Team Bluff, you’ll get exclusive notice about a Kamimaze freeroll happening on Carbon Poker – right then! These freerolls are exclusive to Team Bluff members, and may happen at any moment. Why wait for your weekly freeroll, only to spend 6 hours playing it? With Team Bluff’s exclusive Kamikaze freeroll SNGs, you may be busto one moment, and robusto an hour later!

The Carbon Poker software has really cool features, like the ability to rabbit hunt cards, run it twice and show one or both of your hole cards after you pull off that monster bluff. Check out Carbon Poker, and become a member of Team Bluff today.

Check out Carbon Poker, and sign up for Team Bluff using this exclusive link below.

Please note that in order to be eligible for this promotion you have to click on the Carbon link from the Bluff site.

If any player already has a Carbon account, please email me at eric@bluffmedia.com

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As many of you know I was contacted early June by Patty Senter asking if we could help her terminally ill husband with a dying wish……To Play in the WSOP. Hopefully most of you saw the footage of Kent Senter on ESPN WSOP broadcast last night. I can personally tell you that Patty and Kent are 2 of the kindest people I have had the pleasure of meeting and genuinely appreciative of everything Bluff and Poker Stars has done for them. I couldn’t be more proud to be part of such a great team of people, which leads me to the reason for this blog.

This Saturday Poker Stars and Bluff will be holding a benefit tournament for the Senter’s. Right now the Senter family is really struggling to “stay above water, ” and need help from as many generous poker players as possible. Just to put things in perspective, they are 2 months behind on their rent, the cable has been shut off and the phone will be turned off this week due to non payment. Patty is the only means of income and with medical bills piling up they just cannot afford to survive with out some assistance. Bluff is encouraging as many people to either play the tournament (details below) or make a donation directly into Kent’s Pokerstars account. Bluff will match donations made up to $1,000 in total.

Donations can be made to Kent’s Pokerstars account – username – kentsenter.

Tournament Details:

The goal of the event is to raise money to help pay for Kent’s medical bills that have put him and his family into debt.

Date & Time: September 12, 2009: 8:00PM EST
Tournament Name: Kent Senter Benefit Tournament
How to Sign Up: Register for the event in the Tourney / Private tab
Structure: $10 buy-in with $10 re-buys for the first hour, standard speed

Prize Pool:
PokerStars and Bluff Magazine have come together to put together a great prize package for tournament participants:
1st place: Buy-in to the PokerStars WCOOP Main Event – $5,000 value
2nd Place: Seat to a WSOP Academy provided by Bluff Magazine – $3k value
3rd Place: PokerStars tournament credit voucher for $1000
4th Place: PokerStars tournament credit voucher for $500
5th Place: PokerStars tournament credit voucher for $300
6th Place: PokerStars tournament credit voucher for $200

All players who reach the final table will also receive a free year subscription to Bluff Magazine and Fight magazine courtesy of Bluff.

Thanks to everyone for their support.

Bluff Media

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Peeps,

If you are a Canadian Poker Player as of Sept 3rd you can begin playing on bodog. For those of you who do not know much about this site you are in for a real treat. Not only do they offer a 110% bonus up to $500, but they also give 15% upfront, which means you do not have a play through requirement like most sites.

Additionally, bodog is know for the softest play as most of the players are sports gamblers, which mean you have a better chance of winning playing very bad players. If you have not played the Sunday tournament you will no longer be missing out on the HUGE overlays.

To top it off anyone who deposits and plays a minimum of 100 raked hands will receive a free 1 year sub to Bluff Magazine. Just email me at eric@bluffmedia.com with proof that you came from our link and played the required play through. If you already have a subscription I will either ad a year to your current subscription or offer a sub to our other publication FIGHT (www.fightmagazine.com).

Please click on this link:

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Peeps,

If any of you are in LV July 2nd, please join us at our WSOP Party.

Place: Sapphire

Time: 9 PM to 1 AM. Open bar from 9 to 11.

Musical guests will be The Skeletons from Los Angeles.

Special Note: We will be providing transportation to and from the party. Pick up spot will be the WSOP entrance at the Rio (back entrance).

Please note that any person arriving by cab will have to pay the cover charge as cabbies get kick backs from the club for bringing people there. You are free to drive your own car w/o being charged cover.

Please feel free to bring a friend and enjoy an evening on Bluff Magazine.

Eric Morris
Publisher

Click link for further details and invite.
Printable Bluff Invite

Comment

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I have just learned that Bluff contributor and Pokerroad.com producer has passed away this past weekend. For those of you who have never met Justin, I can tell you that he was very well liked and respected by the poker community. he was one who never took himself too seriously and always had a smile on his face. He was just a good guy who worked hard and enjoyed being involved with poker.

Justin will certainly be missed and remembered with great respect. Everyone here at Bluff sends out heartfelt wishes to his family and friends. This is truly a tragic day in the poker world.

I personally will miss Justin and his contribution to Bluff. He was a great friend to the publication. I will certainly miss seeing his smiling face.

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What a week so far! I have been busy getting both Fight and Bluff out the door for press along with working on this years WSOP and planning for the Dream Team Poker Tournament this weekend at Caesars in Las Vegas.

I have to admit that the Dream Team Poker Tournament has been something I have been quite excited for. Team Bluff will once again consist of Justin Bonamo, Matt Parvis and yours truly. For those of you who have not played this event, let me tell you that the first event was one of the most fun tournaments I have ever played in. Obviously winning the inaugural event helped draw this conclusion. Nonetheless, the guys behind Dream Team could not have done a better job of putting the first event together and I am sure this weekends tournament will prove to be equally as grand.

Warren Karp’s team, consisting of Paul Darden and Tony Cusinou (?) has issued a challenge to Team Bluff. Pretty simply, which ever team is out first has to buy drinks for the other. From what Warren tells me Paul and Tony can drink with the best of them, so we are taking the bet very seriously, lol!

The Bluff Online Poker Challenge has 5 days to go and it looks like Brian Hawkins has a lock on first place and an appearance on an upcoming cover of Bluff. As of today he has turned $200.00 into over $20,000. Who says poker is not a game of skill? Great job Brian, you have really done a remarkable job.

Have a great weekend everyone and wish Team Bluff luck…we will definitely need quite a bit should we be fortunate enough to win the tournament again.

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