[LuckyTxGuy]

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And I want to address this overall conversation here between those like yourself who are glass empty guys, and those of us who are glass half-full guys.

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The weatherman predicts heavy rain this afternoon. By lunch time the clouds come rolling in and the wind picks up. Still some people say the weatherman is nuts and as we all know, he's not always right. Darker clouds roll in and we find out it's raining to the north. Nah, it still couldn't rain here, it's just not possible. Oh crap, now it's starting to sprinkle....hmm, well this will just blow over....wait is that rain? Son of a gun. Well the weatherman is still an idiot even though he got lucky with this prediction. What? Now he's predicting severe weather? How could that be, it's just raining, lightning and thundering outside now? It can't get worse than this. The weatherman is an idiot.

You can stand out in the rain getting wet and deny the weatherman was right and keep lieing to yourself because you are a fatal optimist or you can face the facts and admit it will probably get worse before it gets better. Had more people really believed the UIGEA was coming and would be real, something might could have been done to head it off at the pass.

Optimism in a situation like this does nothing to actually help the cause. I was very optimistic up front but once the push for the ban was on, I knew it was going to get ugly. I echoed Bill's sentiments all the while praying I would be wrong. Once the UIGEA was passed I knew our days were numbered, even though the eternal optimist still told us that the UIGEA would do nothing and wouldn't even be enforced. Not only did the online poker empire fall, if fell faster than even I could have guessed.

Then the eternal optimist said that average Joe Fish would not be hindered from jumping through hoops to deposit and redeposit on the 2 major sites left for us to play at. I beg to differ. I dare you to find a FT mirco-limit full ring LHE table with more than 40% of the players seeing the flop. 30% is usually a real stretch. Oh and if you do find a loose table, the waiting list will be 8 people deep. Then the game dries up as the one or two fish bust out and the TAGs take their place. Within 30 minutes PAHUD shows the % has dried up to 22% seeing the flop. The point is, the masses of fish are gone. Just another prediction that sadly came true.

I hate this as much as anyone else. I hope that something can be done to change all of this and the US will step up to allow regulated online poker. I'm trying to be optimistic about that because it is our best chance for the future. I just think that some people take optimism too far and begin lieing to themselves and then consider realist the "glass empty" people.

Just my 2 cents and no need for huge debates directed at me. My position isn't going to change and us arguing won't do any good. I've spoken my peace. Now I'll go back to daydreaming about the good ol' days at Party Poker. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]