I was out cruising the streets of my RV park, on foot, on Super BowlSunday when I happened to pass one of my fellow RV’ers and we exchanged a few pleasantries. He told me in passing that the game had already started. He was, of course, referring to the Super Bowl. An instant response came to my lips but I bit my tongue.

The GAME. We are the game. Everything around us is part of a game. We initiate the game. We play the game. Some of our games have rules, some of our games are structured to self and therefore rules change as the game progresses, some of our games leave us as spectators although we had to have some motivation or circumstance that pulled us into the game to begin with. The overall BIG GAME of the universe holds all the playing fields, spectators, and participants of all the lesser games, pulling us all into everything together so whether we like it or not or are aware of it, our little games are part of the BIG GAME.

That brings me to one big game that’s being played out right now. It’s the United States and their crappy assed decision to protect the U.S. citizens from themselves and ban online poker. I’ve harped, bitched, grouched, and yelled about this before. I’m yelling again.

Tony G. Poker just went down over the weekend, another victim that has fallen to the US’s enforcement of the law by making banking impossible for online poker sites. You can read his latest blog post here, and follow the thread of comments. I admit that Tony’s solution to making sure you receive your player funds back from Tony G. Poker is a real leap of faith, but I believe it is the only way that Tony has to make sure you receive your funds – the banking institution that was associated with Tony G. Poker pulled its account due to US legislation. I posted the following comment in the comments section:

*Begin Comment*

I hope I can answer a few of the questions that are asked here in the comments section.

I too uninstalled and reinstalled ‘Tony G. Poker’, and I couldn’t connect to the site with the new software install. I tried another computer – BINGO! I was in. I transferred my account funds to Tony G.

I sent an email to ‘[email protected]’ and asked to have my funds transferred to my PokerStars account, outlining my user name on Stars, my users name on TonyGPoker, and the amount I transferred to Tony G.

Early this a.m., I received the following email from support:

*****

Issue: tabletango US Withdrawals

Issue Number: 8510

Creation Date: 02/11/2007

Description:

US Withdrawals

Hello Linda,

Thank you for the e-mail.

Your request has been forwarded.

Kind regards,

Don.

I don’t know what the time frame for everyone will be, it’s been roughly 24 hours since I submitted my initial email. A few minutes ago I received this email from PokerStars:

*****

Hello PokerWorks,

We have transferred $????.?? to your account as requested by ‘pokernews’.

Good luck to you both.

Regards,

PokerStars Cashier

*****

I blanked out the amount because I don’t feel that’s anyone’s business.

On Tony G. knowing the site was closing in advance, and not telling anyone about it, I do not believe that is true. I believe that Tony kept hope that his site would stay up and running and was just informed by his banking agency that handles the site transfers, the hosting company that ran the site, and his attorney within the last day or two that Tony was out of options.

If you can’t install/reinstall and connect to the site, try another computer. If you’ve transferred the funds to someone else besides ‘Tony G’, you need to immediately contact support and ask for their help.

All of the player’s funds were held in a separate account and were not kept in an account for operating expenses.

Please keep the faith. I believe Tony G will take care of everything.

*End comment*

The question is, how far is the game going to go? How long are the citizens of the U.S. – land of the free with gigantic chains beginning to tighten around our necks and the oceanbeckoning below the short gangplank- going to tolerate this insanity and lack of protocol and rules of courtesy by the U.S. government before we SCREAM back in defiance.

I can conjure up a picture of the greatest poker game on Earth being held behind bars in a federal penitentiary with Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Jennifer Harman, Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth and more, passing time by playing poker because they went to jail for their involvement in an online poker site. Sit in on that one Michael Craig and make sure you write the book!