6:46am: (P5s) The U.S. government recently seized $24 million from bank accounts linked to Bodog, the giant, illegal-under-U.S.-law Internet gaming operation founded by Canadian tycoon Calvin Ayre.

Federal filings make very clear that a serious criminal investigation of the Bodog enterprise is ongoing. At a minimum, word of the seizures is likely to rattle the confidence of U.S.-based online gamblers that they will receive their winnings, not only from Bodog but from the industry’s other remaining participants.

Detailed in court filings in a Baltimore federal court, the Bodog-related seizures from such well-known institutions as Wachovia (nyse: WB - news - people ), Bank of America (nyse: BAC - news - people ), SunTrust Banks (nyse: STI - news - people ) and Regions Bank, a unit of Regions Financial (nyse: RF - news - people ), increase the possibility of criminal action against Ayre himself. There already has been published speculation in his native Canada that he is under secret indictment somewhere in the U.S.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Baltimore, which launched the two lawsuits to take the $24 million, did not respond to a request for comment.

The flamboyant Ayre–media reports often call him a “playboy”–is now believed to be in Antigua and Barbuda, a country in the eastern Caribbean. He has denied being on the lam. A request on Wednesday for comment from Ayre, sent through the Web site of his Antigua-based Calvin Ayre Foundation, was not immediately returned. Nor were call and e-mail messages sent to public relations contacts listed on Bodog’s Web site.

In early 2006 Ayre rocketed to international prominence–and the cover of Forbes magazine’ annual issue on the world’s billionaires–for his stewardship from Costa Rica of Bodog Entertainment Group and his open flouting of authorities in the U.S., his major market. The story headline: “Catch Me If You Can.” The operation was said at the time to be handling $7.3 billion yearly in poker, casino and sports event wagers.

But since then, Ayre has been the subject of law-enforcement raids abroad and growing regulatory scrutiny, especially in the U.S. In late 2006 President Bush signed a law strengthening the prohibition on online gambling. Ayre fell off the Forbes worldwide billionaires list after just one year, amid a decline in his industry’s fortunes.

In overall actions against the industry, federal prosecutors in New York have charged executives of Neteller with illegally processing online gaming transactions. This summer, Canada’s ESI Entertainment Systems, an Internet payment business, entered into a “deferred prosecution agreement” with the same prosecutors. The company admitted to criminal wrongdoing and agreed to disgorge $9.1 million in criminal proceeds for its role in processing $2 billion in Internet gambling payments for hundreds of thousands of U.S. customers. Criminal cases have been started against various online gambling shops.

Ayre has been trying to put legal distance between himself and the operation he founded in the 1990s. For years its business was run through Internet servers belonging to Mohawk Internet Technologies, located on the Kahnawake Reserve Indian reservation in Quebec, Canada. In September 2007 Bodog said its North American operations would be licensed to Morris Mohawk Group, also located on the reservation and run by tribal chief Alwyn Morris.

Three months ago, Ayre, now 47, said he had transferred ownership of Bodog itself to Morris Mohawk Group. “It’s true; I’m packing it in,” Ayre wrote on a Web site.

Court filings in Maryland say that in January and February a total of $14.2 million was seized from accounts in the name of JBL Services and Transaction Solutions at Wachovia, Regions Bank, Bank of America and Sun Trust Bank. In July, filings say, another $9.9 million was found in eight accounts at Nevada State Bank, a unit of Zion Bancorporation (nasdaq: ZION - news - people ), in the name of Zaftig Instantly Processed Payments, doing business as ZipPayments.com. The companies are described as helping to facilitate parts of the Bodog operation.

The court papers detail an elaborate international structure put together to allow Bodog to collect money and write checks to winning gamblers in the U.S. One affidavit by Randall S. Carrow, a special agent with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, said that $248 million involving entities linked to Bodog was processed through Wachovia Bank, from which $11 million of the $24 million was seized.

In a statement to Forbes, Wachovia said the bank cooperated with law enforcement, doesn’t knowingly allow Internet gaming operations to open accounts, and the funds ending up at the bank were in accounts of a third-party credit card servicer. The statement also hinted that various accounts might have been kept open at the request of investigators to aid their efforts.

According to Carrow’s detailed sworn statements, the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division started looking at Bodog in 2003 and opened a formal probe in 2006. The extensive sleuthing has involved close examination of public and bank records, the enlisting of unnamed cooperating witnesses and informants, and undercover efforts to make bets on football and collect winnings.

Ayre, says Carrow’s statement, is president of Middleton Financial, a Nevada corporation described as a key cog in the U.S. Bodog machinery, as well as Stratham Finance, said to be based in Malta. Other entities linked to Ayre in the court filings are Gateway (nyse: GTW - news - people ) Financial Services, EBanx Ltd., Gregor Financial Ltd. and Calvtek Industries. The filings list dozens of businesses involved in processing Bodog transactions.

The ongoing federal pressure to disrupt Bodog’s financial transactions may be bearing fruit. Carrow’s affidavits say several checks issued from Bodog to its undercover gambler bounced.

A break in the inquiry came in May, one of Carrow’s affidavits says, when an undercover operative for “another state’s gambling commission” received a check that didn’t bounce from an account at Nevada State Bank, which is headquartered in Las Vegas. That led to the $9.9 million seizure this month. The bank had no immediate comment.

Carrow’s affidavits were filed in connection with the U.S.’s successful efforts to get a federal judge to authorize the seizures. But to keep the money permanently, federal prosecutors must file a civil lawsuit and allow a challenge by anyone with a claimed interest. No one fought the $14.2 million seizure, and it was ordered forfeited to the feds. The lawsuit over the $9.9 million–its official name is United States of America v. $9,869,283.05–was just filed.

Even before the advent of Bodog, Ayre carried considerable baggage. Close family members were convicted of drug trafficking. (Ayer himself was never charged.) In 1996 Ayre was banned for 20 years from the British Columbia securities industry for stock market offenses. By that time, he was already moving into online gaming.

“One of the things that drives me is the excitement that I could fail,” he told Forbes in 2006. “What better buzz can you get?”

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

5:13am: The key to my success tonight was consistency. When bad things happened, I didn’t let them compound into something that could potentially effect the way I play. After having put in a solid week of 24 games/day, I’m starting to realize that there’s SUPPOSED to be a bunch of ups and down throughout the day, and that’s my JOB to handle it accordingly.

$200 isn’t peanuts, and that’s how much is on the table every time I sit down with an opponent to play a heads up sit n go. Being as such, should one really expect that it be easy? I don’t think so. Having always had a complete respect for money, and how hard it is to come by, I feel that grinding $100 heads up sit n gos is a absolute privilege and I’m so fortunate to be able to play at these stakes. If the math holds up, I should make more this year than some engineers.

Back to tonight: there was really only one “rough patch” of 2-4 games, where it could have gone either way, but unfortunately went the wrong way, so I had to accept it, move on, and not let it affect the rest of the night. Moving on was an understatement, as I would then go 5-1 after that point to close out the night.

As soon as I get the hang of all this volume, I’ll be on total auto-pilot from here on out, until eventually I hit the $200s (shooting for Jan 2009, but that’s ok if not).

Good luck to anyone playing in a session today!

More later…

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

5:30am: We will call this hand “how to extract chips with the stone cold nuts”.

Enjoy, everyone!

I also wanted to add that I am 6-3 so far today in $100 heads up matches, so I’m off to quite a good start. Good luck to anyone playing a session today.

3:28am: Most players would readily admit that playing small pocket pairs isn’t their favorite thing in the world to do. Some would sooner enjoy mowing the lawn, or scrubbing dirty pots and pans. That’s because small pocket pairs are not easy to play, as even I will admit.

There’s gotta be some kind of rule book or chart somewhere telling us what to do when dealt pocket fours, right?

Not even close. Playing small pocket pairs is much more a balancing act than anything else. First off, you must recognize your hand for what it is: it’s just a pair. Of course there’s the slightly optimistic anticipation of the possibility that you will flop a set with that bad boy and felt your opponent, but 19 times out of 20 that’s not going to happen.

Let’s take a look at how I usually approach the situation, according to “type of board” and for each opponent type (TAG and LAG). For example’s sake, let’s assume we’re holding pocket fives (5c5s) in this case. Let’s also assumed that you and your opponent are fairly equally stacked at 1500 a piece. Let’s also assume that your opponent has raised on the button (60) and you elect to just call in the 10/20 blinds:

1. Nondescript board - 9d 7s 2c. Against a LAG opponent, I would recommend check raising this flop pretty hard, and then folding to a shove or any kind of bet on the turn/river. You need to make a bold statement with your hand on the flop in order to find out where you’re at. Let’s say you check, and your opponent bets 2/3 the pot (90). Check raising to, say, 350 right here should tell you fairly quickly where you are at. Every now and then someone will float you with AJ, AQ, AK in this spot, but nearly all other hands that have not connected with this board are going into the muck. If you get called, I would say it’s pretty safe to put on the brakes. Your opponent will likely be a little timid as well, and you may even get to a showdown that you normally may not have seen — with the best hand.

Against a TAG opponent, I probably lead out for the pot. The reason I suggest this line is because a TAG opponent is going to play relatively more straight forward, and those who are playing tight will usually have the discipline to lay down over cards in this situation. If you get called, I would say theres an 80% chance you are already beat, in which case you saved yourself from being curious later on if you had just check/called the whole way through.

2. Board with at least two paints - As Qc 3c. While this is a less-than-desirable board for your hand, it’s fairly cut and dry and actually a little easier to play than on a nondescript board. In my honest opinion, after having played 7,000+ heads up sngs lifetime, that there’s no significant value in betting in this spot - no matter if your opponent is LAG or TAG. LAG opponents are a little harder to put on hands than TAG opponents, and could have been raising with any two, so your hand is more likely to be good against someone who is LAG in this spot. However, you could get into some trouble betting this hand because a good LAG is going to put you to a decision on this flop, and that’s a decision you’re not going to want to have to make. The TAG opponent almost certainly has you beat in this spot because tight players like to play paint cards, so betting usually isn’t a good idea in this spot either. I always tell people to keep your decisions as easy as possible, because it keeps your mind fresh and playing balanced. Having to decipher 3-4 levels of thought to determine whether a mediocre pair is good in this spot is too tall a task in these blind levels, and therefore not worth the brain power in chips. So to that, I say suck up the pride and check/fold.

3. “Drawy” board - 7h 9h Jh. There’s a number of ways you could go about doing this. Surprisingly, players in this day and age have progressed to the point where if you lead out strong here, they usually won’t just call. Whether or not they are on a draw, you will usually be faced with either a fold or a raise. I find this to hold true for both TAG and LAG players. Your hand may or may not be good, but I think the play regardless of whether your opponent is TAG or LAG is to lead out pretty strong (120), and then check/fold if you feel any sort of resistance whatsoever. If you get called, odds are your opponent either has (a) a heart, (b) one or more of the cards on the board, or (c) over cards and (a) combined. In any of those three cases, you aren’t far enough ahead to invest a lot of money in this pot, so it’s safe to put the breaks on after the initial information-seeking bet.

4. A paired board with an over card - 9c 9s Kd. A LAG player is probably going to make a continuation bet on this flop, so you can make a strong argument for check raising here. However, this time if you get called, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re beat. If you check to your opponent, and he bets 90 in this spot, a check raise to 240 will take it down roughly 55% of the time. From the other 45% that you get called, I would venture to say that against a LAG opponent you are ahead 40% of the time. A good portion of the time what you’re looking at in this spot is someone who has a pair higher than yours, but also didn’t connect with the board (see: pocket nines). However, more than likely you’re looking at someone who is just floating you with a strong ace. From here, the best line is to take, in my opinion, is that if the turn is lower than your card (2, 3, 4) then I would bet hard, and fold to a raise. If the turn is higher than my pair, then I would probably bet small and fold to a raise. The river should usually be checked in either case, to which you should use pot odds accordingly when faced with a bet from a LAG player.

The TAG is probably going to let you know where they are at, but there’s a good chance that they connected with the high card on the board. A solid TAG would probably still make a continuation on this flop, so my advice to you would be to make one hard check raise, see what happens, and then shut it down if you get called because you’re almost certainly beat.

5. Paired board with an under card - 10s 10c 3d. You’re almost always good in this spot, no matter if your opponent is TAG or LAG. The correct play here is to trust that your hand is good now, and will stay good because your opponent simply has over cards. I would bet each street for value in this situation.

6. Low board with one over card - 6s 4d 2c. Did your opponent really call you with a 6? That’s the question you need to ask yourself, and decide quickly because if you believe that they do not hold a 6, you have to play this hand like you have top pair, and bet out accordingly. Against a LAG, I would probably recommend check raising the flop and then betting out (if you believe they don’t hold a 6) with medium sized bets. Against a TAG player, I would just lead out and call a small raise, but fold to a large one. In either case, if you’re already beat you have a pretty solid backup plan in case a 5 or a 3 hits, and it’s going to be really hard for your opponent to put you on a gut shot draw if your straight does fill up. It get’s slightly complicated if you make your set, but you’re usually still good in that case. Just make sure to keep the pot small until you’re sure where you stand.

7. Low board with no over cards - 2s 3c 4c. In this case, even against pocket Kings, your hand is still around 40% to win so it’s justifiable to felt this hand against even a TAG. I’m almost never folding this hand against and LAG player, so you should play it as aggressively as possible. Against a TAG, I would probably bet out, and/or call all raises, and only fold if I believe my opponent has a set.

8. Flopping a set - 5s Jc Kd. I saved the best for last, for two reasons. (1) because this is the situation we all dream of, right? and (2) because it’s the least likely to happen. I actually compare this situation to sitting in the weeds for 2 days straight with a sniper rifle, waiting for something to cross your path and then finally, something slowly drifts in front of your cross hairs. All analogies aside, I would say that the main thing you need to do is just make sure that your opponent doesn’t fold. That being said, I think it actually depends on what you perceive your opponent’s opinion of you to be. If you feel that your opponent thinks you’re a tight player, I would probably make small bets or check the flop and set the trap for later. If your opponent considers you loose and reckless, then I would probably just bet out with the hand, and hope to get raised. Either way, I truly believe betting out with monster hands is the new “slowplaying”, because people sniff out slowplays way better than they used to, in general.

So there you have it. Whether you agree or disagree with my advice, one thing is certain: there’s more than one way to skin a cat. This is far from a “guide” on how to play small pocket pairs in heads up sngs, but if you have taken at least one or two small “pointers” from this very subjective article, then my work here is finished.

6:18pm: The day started out unlucky for JohnnyVegas as he drew trujm (myself) on the first match, but he made quick work of me, and then 3 others to defeat Mojo in the championship match. Hats off to Mojo, who also played well, but then ran into an unfortunate hand (see below), which pretty much sealed the deal for the championship match:

PokerStars Game #19152716226: Tournament #95156205, $5.00+$0.50 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round V, Level I (160/320) - 2008/07/27 - 19:11:28 (ET)
Table ‘95156205 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: thedrjayman (20960 in chips)
Seat 2: MrMojo728 (27040 in chips)
thedrjayman: posts small blind 160
MrMojo728: posts big blind 320
*** HOLE CARDS ***
thedrjayman: calls 160
MrMojo728: checks
*** FLOP *** [Qc 8d 2h]
MrMojo728: checks
thedrjayman: checks
*** TURN *** [Qc 8d 2h] [9s]
MrMojo728: bets 320
thedrjayman: raises 640 to 960
MrMojo728: raises 640 to 1600
thedrjayman: raises 3520 to 5120
MrMojo728: raises 3520 to 8640
thedrjayman: raises 12000 to 20640 and is all-in
MrMojo728: calls 12000
*** RIVER *** [Qc 8d 2h 9s] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MrMojo728: shows [Qd 8c] (two pair, Queens and Eights)
thedrjayman: shows [Td Jh] (a straight, Nine to King)
MrMojo728 said, “nh”
thedrjayman collected 41920 from pot
thedrjayman said, “ty”
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 41920 | Rake 0
Board [Qc 8d 2h 9s Kc]
Seat 1: thedrjayman (button) (small blind) showed [Td Jh] and won (41920) with a straight, Nine to King
Seat 2: MrMojo728 (big blind) showed [Qd 8c] and lost with two pair, Queens and Eights

Even though we fell short of the required 20 entrants for the extra $50 to be added to the prize pool (19 HFL’ers participated), I was feeling festive and decided to add the money to the prize pool regardless. In the end, JohnnyVegas pocketed $92.75 and is crowned the champion until the next HFL tourney.

If you’re wondering how often the HFL tourney runs, wonder no more. We will run the HFL tourney 6 times a year, which would make the next one two months from now. Hopefully, we have established a little bit of a cult following, and I look forward to possibly 30-40 entrants next time.

Thanks to everyone who participated, and good luck to anyone putting in a session tonight. Feel free to start a results thread if you happen to start before me. This is normally my night off, but I stopped short of 24 games yesterday, so I have to work on my off day.

12:00am: The HFL tourney is now less than 24 hours away. So far, we have 14 registrants, but I can account for a couple more who haven’t registered yet.

REMINDER: Originally I had said that we needed 20 people to be registered 24 hours before the tourney begins for me to add $50 to the prize pool. That has been changed. If we have 20 registrants an hour before the tourney begins, I will add $50 to the prize pool. This should be a piece of cake, considering we are only a few people away from achieving this goal.

It should also be noted that a video will be made of the “final 4″ (pending everyone’s agreement to turn in hand histories), with all cards shown face up.

If you have not registered for the HFL heads up tourney, we would love to have you. Anyone is welcome. The entry fee is $5 and the tournament will be played on Sunday, July 27th at 5:00pm EST. The tournament ID is: 95156205. You can find the tournament by clicking “Tourney” under the PokerStars menu, and then “Private”.

The password to the tournament is: “kensentme”

See all of you there.

5:20: Everything was sunny and bright up until the point at which I was 10-5 and ready to close the day out strong. All of a sudden, my old run of cards from the last 2-3 days made a cameo appearance, and I lost 6 out of 8 coinflips when all in. Granted, one of them was my fault. The blinds were too low, and I knew my opponent was on tilt, but I made the mistake and called anyways. I was ahead, of course, when he turned over K7off, but everything went downhill from there as he hit his king.

I would then lose four straight matches, and totally wipe out what had been a great day so far. It was at this point that I hit the reset button, and went to my GF for a pep talk.

Ever see the movie Rocky (or the series, rather)? Well, whenever Rocky felt down or didn’t believe in himself, he always turned to Adrian for re-assurance. Whenever I need a vote of confidence and a new twist or silver lining in a situation, my girlfriend (Adrian 2.0) is always the one who reminds me where I’ve been, and where I’m headed.

Coincidentally, I returned to win five straight matches, before dropping the final match of the night and eventually finished 14-10 on the night. And to that I say: I’ll take it!

(PN) The growing chorus of voices calling for an end to the ban on internet gambling has just added two unexpected members – associate professors Kathryn LaTour, from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and June Cotte, from the University of Western Ontario in Canada – but not because these self-described non-gamblers support internet gambling. Rather, they see lifting the ban as a necessary precursor to the implementation of effective regulation of the industry.

LaTour and Cotte co-authored a report, to be published next February in the Journal of Consumer Research, entitled “Blackjack in the Kitchen: Understanding Online Versus Casino Gambling” in which they recommend the full legalization and regulation of online gambling in the United States and Canada in order to reduce some of the activity’s harmful effects.

The two did not expect their study to yield such a result. “If you told me I was going to come to that conclusion at the start of research I would have laughed,” said Cotte. But, after interviewing 20 regular casino gamblers and 10 regular online gamblers, they found differences which they found troubling and which led them to their conclusion that online gambling needs to be legalized so that it can be regulated. According to their study, online gamblers gambled more frequently and aggressively, gambled for longer hours at a time, and had a less accurate idea about their losses than their casino-playing counterparts.

For the researchers, the current ban on internet gambling is not the answer. “The horse is out of the barn,” said Cotte. Indeed, the non-gambling professor was shocked to find the industry was already bringing in $12 billion to $15 billion a year. “There is a huge amount of people who are already doing this,” she said. Instead of maintaining the ban, which only serves to move internet gambling off shore, the study suggests ways in which the industry could be regulated to deal with some of its potential for harm.

“You could require the North American online casinos to have things like cooling-off periods, where if you run out of money you don’t instantaneously hit a button and upload some more. In a casino, if you run out of cash, you at least have to walk to an ATM,” Cotte said.

Other suggestions include the implementation of a pop-up notice on a site to alert the user that they have crossed a threshold in the amount of money lost and/or the amount of time spent at the site. They also recommended increasing the size of the wins or losses on the page so that users could more easily track their transactions. On-line counseling, information of treatment for problem gambling, and strict age checks could also be added to the regulations of the gambling sites. In addition to integrating safety features into legalized online gambling sites, both researchers thought regulating the industry could lead to increased revenue. “There are a lot of tax dollars out there that could be collected,” LaTour said.

3:13am: I thought today would be a good day to introduce finally the individual hand discussion segments. Here is a hand I played in the last match of the day. I didn’t mention it in the video, but I actually came back and won the match (see transcript below), so there was a happy ending. However, the hand itself is pretty disgusting as you will see.

This video will always be available under the “Single Hand Video Discussion” link on the left side, for future reference. Enjoy!

The hand that finally put him away:

PokerStars Game #19084271363: Tournament #97841526, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level III (25/50) - 2008/07/25 - 03:19:33 (ET)
Table ‘97841526 1′ 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: trujm (1940 in chips)
Seat 2: squishy310 (1060 in chips)
squishy310: posts small blind 25
trujm: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [8c 8h]
squishy310: raises 50 to 100
trujm: raises 1840 to 1940 and is all-in
squishy310: calls 960 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (880) returned to trujm
*** FLOP *** [Kh 6c Jd]
*** TURN *** [Kh 6c Jd] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [Kh 6c Jd 5s] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [8c 8h] (two pair, Kings and Eights)
squishy310: shows [Ah Tc] (a pair of Kings)
trujm collected 2120 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2120 | Rake 0
Board [Kh 6c Jd 5s Kc]
Seat 1: trujm (big blind) showed [8c 8h] and won (2120) with two pair, Kings and Eights
Seat 2: squishy310 (button) (small blind) showed [Ah Tc] and lost with a pair of Kings

2:35am: It was yet another session of extreme swingyness, peaks and valleys, ups and downs. So many times in crucial situations in crucial hands that determine the winner of the match, I’ve been on the wrong side of the fence in the last 3 days. Today, despite that fact still existing, on skill alone I was able to eek out a 13-11 record.

I say “skill alone” because I was definitely more unlucky than lucky today and somehow was able to turn in a winning day. This new committment to putting in high amount of volume at mid/high stakes is way different than playing 5-6 matches a night, turning in a 4-2 record and calling it a day. It was easy back then. This is because your mind has less time to forget about the ugliness, and it’s hard not to take that with you into the next match.

Yet, that’s what I’ve been in constant struggle with the last three days, and surprisingly, I’ve been up to the task. For the most part, when you’re opening up games left and right and you’ve got so many more to play, the bad beats don’t stay with you as long because there’s really no time to focus on the negative.

I’ve said this before, and this time is no less important: it takes an EXTREMELY mentally tough person to play these for a living. I’d even go so far as to say that it’s probably the most exhausting form of poker because there’s so much thinking involved. That’s the price we pay, however, for the decrease in variance (as compared to other forms of poker).

If I would have been playing heads up cash games the last 3 days, I’d be down thousands of dollars. That’s because I ran terrible when either myself or my opponent was all in. The “battle in the trenches”, I felt was one area that I excelled in. But unfortunately, coin flips have not been very nice to me this week.

All that being said, even though I’m on a completely break-even streak this week, I know things will change. All I need to do to remind myself of that is to take one look at my graph. The greatest predictor of the future is the past, and based on where I’ve been, I like where I’m headed.