Former PokerStars Executive Serves as Consultant for National Poker Week

Among those in attendance at the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) Fly-In held as part of National Poker Week was former PokerStars Marketing Director Dan Goldman, who served as a consultant to bring the event to life. Poker News Daily caught up with Goldman during a working dinner on Monday.

Poker News Daily: Tell us about your contributions to National Poker Week.

Goldman: I’ve been serving as a consultant for the last couple of months for National Poker Week and for the PPA’s presence at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). I’ve been helping them design marketing programs and getting people to sign the online poker petition. I’ve been getting people mobilized this week to write their Senators and Representatives and helped organize events to support that, including freerolls on PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Cake Poker.

PND: What has been the response of online poker sites when you’ve asked them to set up freerolls for those who sign the online poker petition?

Goldman: Their response has been extraordinarily positive. They understand that if online poker is going to be successful, there needs to be a regulatory body. There needs to be legislation and regulation. The way to do it is to mobilize poker players to campaign to their Senators and Congressmen to pass one of these bills to clarify the situation. A lot of people think that online poker is illegal in the United States and it’s not.

PND: Can you comment on the turnout at the Fly-In this week?

Goldman: The turnout has been good. We have the vast majority of our State Directors here in Washington, DC. We also have a number of well-known poker players. These people are all wonderful voices in support of online poker. They’re people that these legislators know. They’ve seen them on television. They’re going to be as excited to meet them as the poker players are to meet Senators and Congressmen. Overall, we’re very happy about the turnout.

PND: Can you talk about the development of the PPA’s push to put a name on the face of poker players?

Goldman: It’s clear to us that legislators have a view of poker that is the same that our parents had. Our parents may have thought about poker as taking place in a smoke filled room with guys with visors and scars. When legislators look at the notion of online poker, they think in terms of money laundering, scam artists, and people trying to get bank information in order to funnel money to Libya.

The reality is that online poker players are just normal people. Your typical online poker player is in their mid- to late-20s, not playing for big money, and is just an ordinary person. The campaign that the PPA has put together focuses on ordinary people like a housewife or a soccer mom who makes a living playing poker online. She can play poker a couple of days online and make a reasonable living.

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Useful poker terms:

CHASE - To continue in a hand, often at poor odds, in the hopes of catching a much better hand. "He called, chasing the flush.".
LITTLE SLICK - In Hold'em, hole cards of A-2, suited or not.
PAT HAND - In draw poker, a hand that does not need any more cards. Specifically, a straight, flush, full house or straight flush. One might bluff and represent a pat hand but actually hold something else.
FAVORITE - Before all the cards are dealt, a hand that figures to be the winner. Ant: UNDERDOG.
OPEN-HANDED - A category of games characterized by a part of each player's hand being exposed.
LIVE BLIND - The last and largest blind bet may or may not be LIVE. If LIVE, the blind bettor has the option of "raising" his own blind in the event the bet is called around to him. This is normal, and is sometimes referred to as "blinds are live".

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