Hrm, everytime I think I'm about to turn the corner in poker, something UNRELATED to my skills at the tables happens. In 2006, it was UIGEA. Last year around this same time, it was Stars introducing 50bb max tables. Now, this latest bombshell definitely limits my options and profitability.

For now, I'm going to take a 'wait and see' approach. I'm not really sure if US Customers can't play on Stars on Full Tilt because those sites have decided to stop servicing them for now or if the US government has actively done something to prevent it like blocking IP addresses. If the sites felt like they were legally operating all this time, I'm not sure why they'd suddenly choose to stop servicing us now because of this lawsuit. They obviously knew the government thought it was illegal. The lawsuit doesn't seem to change anything. It's not like they'll go to court and be like, 'But, hey, look, as soon as you issued a warrant, we stopped letting US players, play' and then the judge will be like, 'Ah, yes, you're free to go'. I'm sure it's more complicated that that.

I'm going to plan to ramp up my live game play. There's a casino about a an hour and a half away that spreads $1/$3 NLHE. I've been there once and made $200. I may start going there more often. I also run a home game once every two weeks and I'll plan to start hosting it every week now. I'm also going to investigate the possibility of playing on other sites that are still US friendly like Cake, Carbon, Titan, Bodog, and others. Although, putting more money on poker sites that might get shut down like Stars/Tilt doesn't seem wise, so I'll probably be playing 'wait and see' there, too.

My main concern, outside of getting my money from Stars/Tilt, is not losing the poker skills I've honed all these years. I know from PERSONAL experience after a 6 month layoff, it took me at least 3 to 4 months to get back into the same game shape where I was before I stopped playing. I definitely fear that playing too much live and not enough online will hurt that again.

But, I'm also optimistic that maybe it's a blessing in disguise that could expedite the process to regulated, legal poker in America. It just really sucks to have a blackout period like this now AND no legislation passed.