Dear Texas Poker Player,
As you know, the Poker Players Alliance is fighting on your behalf in Washington, D.C. and at the state level to defend your right to play poker. The fight for legal, safe and fair poker is taking place here in Texas right now.
The Texas Poker PAC is an ally of the PPA and has worked hard to get great legislation introduced that will regulate and expand legal poker in Texas! House Bill HB 3186 was filed by Representative Jose Menendez of San Antonio. This will have a public hearing on Tuesday, April 3rd in the House Committee on Licensing and Administrative Procedures and poker in the great state of Texas needs your support.
This is a unique opportunity to have your voice heard in support of the game you love! Testifying in favor of the bill will be some high profile folks like Gavin Smith, Erick Lindgren, Lyle Berman, Dallas DA Craig Watkins and others.
Please join us in Austin on the afternoon of April 3rd to make your voice heard! The hearing will be held in the Capital Extension Building (North side of the Capitol) Room E2.030 (3rd Level Downstairs) at approximately 2 PM. I would love you to join me and other members of the PPA and stand up for Poker in Texas!
Click here to let others know you'll be there.
If you cannot make it to Austin then, please click here to send an email or call the committee members' Austin offices. Here is a list of Committee members with their e-mails and phone numbers. We encourage you to call for poker in Texas.
House Committee on Licensing and Administrative Procedures

Ismael "Kino" Flores (D- Mission) Chairman
(512) 463-0704
Kino.Flores@house.state.tx.us

Charlie Geren (R- Houston)
(512) 463-0610
charlie.geren@house.state.tx.us

Carl Isett (R-Lubbock)
(512) 463-0676
carl.isett@house.state.tx.us

Tony Goolsby (R-Dallas)
(512) 463-0454
tony.goolsby@house.state.tx.us

Delwin Jones (R- Lubbock)
(512) 463-0542
delwin.jones@house.state.tx.us

Senfronia Thompson (D- Houston)
(512) 463-0720
senfronia.thompson@house.state.tx.us

Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton (R- Mauriceville)
(512) 463-0412
mike.hamilton@house.state.tx.us

Borris Miles (D- Houston)
(512) 463-0518
borris.miles@house.state.tx.us

Chente Quintanilla (D- El Paso)
(512) 463-0613
chente.quintanilla@house.state.tx.us


You can even cut and paste the following text into your email or use this as a template for your phone call:
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Dear Representative,
I am a Texas voter and I support the expansion and regulation of legal poker in Texas. Poker is a game of skill that can bring hundreds of millions of dollars to the state both directly and indirectly. Please support HB 3186 filed by Representative Menendez when it is heard in the Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee on April 3rd.
Thank you in advance for joining with the tens of thousands of law abiding poker players in Texas who support this legislation.
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Please visit the Texas Poker PAC today, Texas Poker Pac and signup for their email list. They will keep you updated on the bill progress and what you can do to finally bring Hold’em back to Texas!
Regards,
Michael Bolcerek, President
Poker Players Alliance

Thanks for info. I also saw this on a PPA video on YouTube. I'm going to try and get there, but Tuesdays and Thursdays are my days to pick up my grandkids from school, so I'll have to try and swap. If I can, I'll be there, if not let them know that there are more of us out that want gambling legalized here.

I'm curious as to how you think this hearing went. Saw the news about, but couldn't really get a read one way or another. I tired to make, just couldn't swap days on picking up my grandkids. Thx

Dear Texas PPA Member:

I had a great couple of days in Austin this week testifying on behalf of Poker Player Alliance members in Texas and doing publicity with the Texas Poker PAC to pass the Texas Poker Act (HB 3186). Our committee hearing went extremely well. Our witness list included Lyle Berman of the World Poker Tour, Erick Lindgren, Clonie Gowen, Crandall Addington and several others. I want to thank those members who took the time to call, write or attend. We are winning but I need your help now! Please contact your State Representative today and tell them that you are in favor of the Texas Poker Act, HB 3186 by Representative Menendez and you want them to vote for it. We need everybody to call and email immediately, so that we can move this bill quickly.

Click here to find out who your representative is and how to contact them by phone or e-mail. I would suggest that you contact their Austin office if possible: Texas House of Representatives

Along with calls, please email them as well. Here is a message you can cut and paste if you would like:


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Dear Representative,

I am a Texas poker player and voter. Please support HB 3186, The Texas Poker Act by Jose Menendez. This legislation will bring great economic benefit to the state of Texas, as well as make poker safe and regulated in Texas. Please help bring Texas Hold'em back home to Texas.

Thanks you for your support,

Your Name Here

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This is very important. Please contact your State Representative TODAY. If it is the weekend leave a message. Call back again on Tuesday too! We want to flood offices with overwhelming support for this bill.

Thank you for your commitment to safe legal poker in Texas.

Also please click here to sign up for our chat with Senator Alfonse D'Amato on Thursday, April 12 at 3:00 pm Eastern Time.


Regards,

Michael Bolcerek
President
Poker Players Alliance

Viper I was unable to attend the physical hearing but was active in correspondence. However this is a post of someone that had made it from another forum I am a member of to kind of give you a feel of how it went down.

Well, this was the first time I've involved myself in politics in general and I have to say, it feels great! There is a lot to cover, a lot was said but I have to start with the highlight of the day. Playing Chinese poker with Clonie Gowen and Eric Lindgren! Of course, my first hand, I win. I'm so skillful. Aside from the fact that I was dealt aces/straight/full house. (look up the game if you're lost).

Anyway, I'm sitting in a room about the size of my living room with Eric Lindgren, Clonie Gowen, Lyle Berman and about 3 other people discussing poker. I heard a lot of stories about gambling on the road with Doyle Brunson and Clonie told me about a few times Gus Hansen was betting rediculous amounts on a game he really knew little about. Bowling for $200/spare $400/strike with Michael "the grinder" Mizrachi, Gavin Smith, Mike Sexton, and Jeff Madsen. I learned so much from the few hours I sat in the room with those guys but I'm keeping those secrets! Anyway onto the bill...

There were so many people there that many had to stand. The ones who filled out a statement and submitted it were in favor 66 to 1. The lonely guy against the bill was from the Christian Convention.
His arguement? "there MAY be an element of skill" to which the room responded with laughter! Then, the chairman asked "if your objection is to the luck factor then why don't we take out church bingo?" The representative from the Christian Convention was speechless. I've never heard so many umms and uuhs strung together in the form of a response. The room laughed at this man and rightfully so. Actually so did the chairman and the rest of the committee.

The Committee's reaction to the bill was favorable. The bill proposes poker tables in establishments such as bars etc. Only 4 tables in one establishment barring sexually oriented businesses. Mandatory video surveillance for safety reasons. The rake off each hand would go towards Medical research, the homeless, and charity.

Right now, in the state of Texas, they are using state funds in the form of SWAT teams to raid home games and all the players get is the equivalent of a traffic ticket. Wasted tax dollars.

In conclusion, the bill has to go to one more meeting, then it will be passed to the floor of the House, if passed, it will go to the Senate, and then we will have poker back in Texas.

I thanked the President of the PPA, Lyle, Clonie, Eric, and the rest of the suits fighting for our right and I was out. I will have audio from the meeting which i'll edit down into the highlights and we'll get them up on the website soon.

-Suicide Sean

Why is it okay to gamble at every indian reservation in the nation and play bingo but on-line gambling is a no-no. Makes no sense to me.

It should make perfect sense.

There is only one reason that they do not want US citizens to gamble online. TAXES. At this point there is no way to insure that the money grubbers in Washington D.C. and individual state governments will be able to tax internet gambling.

Once all the bugs are worked out and our US represntatives are convinced they will get the almighty dollar for their beloved pet projects like bridges to Nowhere, Alaska, the all knowing bureaucrats will open up gambling in all forms online to the people of the USA.

With Legal live poker rooms here I wouldn't waste time with online poker any longer to tell the truth. I personally prefer to play live. I hate to drive long distances for a game and the cardrooms here that are active are somewhat suspect.

I will always support peoples right to do with their property what they choose. I also find it irresponsible of Washington politicians to continue to defy the ruling of the WTO. They demand that we support them in this debacle of an organization to protect jaggoff corporations like Microsoft from having 3rd world countries counterfeiting their technology and selling it cheaper. They then turn around and defy the WTO courts when some goofball shyster Senator with a personal agenda sneaks a piece of garbage legislation into the back end of another bill.

Now as for all the crap they are laying down against the Bodogs, and Neteller, and so on I see where they have a case. These organizations allowed for sportbetting which was a clear violation of the wire act (another piece of garbage legislation that makes us look stupid in the eyes of the world).

Our ridiculous government representatives spend more time focusing on dictating morality and policy to it's citizens and pressing it's weight on other countries than it does actually working to protect the rights, civil liberties, and free market capitalist ideals of the founders. We keep electing the same idiots over and over. They keep digging the pit deeper and deeper. They push us into the pit until somebody throws mud at them and then they play on our patriotic spirit to fight their fight for them.

Because of our government representatives dating back to Truman through today we have become hypocrites and imperialists in the eyes of the world. Internally we are unstable, lagging, and losing what had always made us the envy of all others. If we weren't then they would have all stopped wanting to come here. This could go on for days and I'm sure I'll catch a lot of crap for my opinions. But the sooner we start looking for real representation and focusing on growth and reality learning from history instead of repeating it and falling further away from prosperity then the mire we continue to walk casually into will claim us.

More info about the law and PPA. I don't know if everyone is aware of this, so I thought I would post it here:


PPA's D'Amato Holding Web Conference Next Week
The PPA's Asks People to Send in Questions for Former Senator
The Poker Players Alliance will host a video conference and question-and-answer session with the newest member of its board, former New York Senator Al D’Amato.

The video conference takes place Thursday, April 12, at 3 p.m. ET. The Senator will give viewers an update of the federal government issues facing poker today and what the PPA is doing to fight for poker rights.

People have the opportunity to send e-mail questions before and during the webcast, which the Senator will answer live.

You can go to the PPA website to register or send a question in for the Senator.

http://pokerplayersalliance.org