House Committee to Hold Internet Gambling Hearing 6/8 - Page 6

PBJaxx · #51 06-06-2007, 04:05 PM

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As of this afternoon, Howard Lederer's name has been dropped from the witness list at the House Committee hearing this Friday. We'll see if they get add another player or not. Might be tough to get someone to make the trip with the WSOP going on.

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This could make a HUGE difference.

ProfessorBen · #52 06-06-2007, 04:35 PM

Hey Guys,
I've worked in the Senate as an intern for a bit before and attended tons of hearings.

For those of you unfamiliar, here's a breakdown of what happens in a Congressional hearing:
Hearing begins. Chairman goes through welcoming and procedural stuff(Frank talks about happenings of the Committee, usually unimportant)
Chairman calls on each witness to talk for about 10 minutes.
After everyone has given their testimony, questions begin. The Chairman usually gets to ask the first round of questions(2-3 questions). These questions are usually directed at 1 person and can be about something mentioned in the testimony or completely unrelated. Customarily, once the Chairman is done, the ranking Republican on the committee gets next dibs, followed by any Congressmen in the room in a specified order. People who are keenly interested usually stay around or come back for a 2nd round of questions. (This is a good sign of who our main allies/opponents are)

A couple of other notes:
Hearings are open to the public. People who have press/staff badges get in first, but otherwise you can get in for free if you want. (Obviously, the webcast will be available too.)

Each witness usually has a printed statement thats submitted and posted usually 2-3 days before. Witnesses typically don't read their statement verbatim, so it does provide some more details, if you're interested.

Congressmen are busy. Thus, usually, only Congressman who already have a stake/position on this issue will attend or ask questions. If the issue is unimportant to them, Congressmen usually send their staffs to cover the hearing and you won't hear any unbiased questions. Basically, don't expect this to be an objective, informative hearing. Expect politics to be at play and people to push for angles.

*TT* · #53 06-06-2007, 06:59 PM

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As of this afternoon, Howard Lederer's name has been dropped from the witness list at the House Committee hearing this Friday. We'll see if they get add another player or not. Might be tough to get someone to make the trip with the WSOP going on.

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Oddly this might be good news. Howard has a felony conviction on record related to bookmaking from quite a few years ago(its a minor situation, I think he avoided jail time or spent just a day in the can - I forget), he would be exempt from operating a poker room based on Frank's new law.

I love Howard and really respect the man, its probably in his best interest - and in our best interest as well that he does not testify.

ekdikeo · #54 06-06-2007, 07:19 PM

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Well, it could hardly get worse. He worked his bankroll up to $60-70k or so, then lost it all and more, dipped into the untouchable savings (a negative bankroll, essentially). But then, I recall that he began winning when his family started eating cheaply. Not pleasant.

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Not pleasant, but certainly not the worst that can happen. When that article ended, he was apparently again trending upwards, and had started to work his bankroll back up, and had his savings back to where it started.

I just busted into my poker bankroll to cover getting transportation setup for myself, again, so i'm on my fourth dip to below $1k from a high of just around $3k.. though this time I didn't lose 2/3rds of my roll..
I also haven't deposited into a poker room since 2000, and my current roll was completely started from free.

I actually feel bad about busting into my gaming money, but it's for a greater good - now I can get to the casinos regularly instead of playing for piddly online only. I can beat 1/2NL all day long (usually) at Greektown casino, but I sure as hell can't beat it on FT, AP or CP..