But the U.S. Congress is trying to take away all that.

I mean, with the state of the economy, doesn’t it make sense to just let us play and then tax the hell out of the site? It’s not like they can’t afford it.

Anyway, seems like the final touches of the Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act (due to take effect on Jan. 1) are now being made.

Thank goodness Congressman Barney Frank is trying to do something about it.

Frank is calling for a special hearing on the law.

He is looking to come up with an alternative.

The Senate fooled us, Frank said.

Now they want to look into the legalization of internet gambling.

That’s more like it.

I wanna see what happens this July when the committee meets.

I’ll keep my eye on things. OK?

I love this story, which I first heard about through the Catholic News Service.

It’s about a very cool, poker-playing Catholic priest, who just beat one of the world’s top poker players in a national poker contest aired on a Fox TV show, winning $100,000 that he says he’ll donate to his church’s new building fund.

The Rev. Andrew Trapp, assistant pastor of St. Michael Catholic Church, gathered Sunday at a viewing party with 300 boosters in a Garden City Beach, South Carolina, gymnasium to watch a previously recorded episode from a poker tournament that began online with 10,000 contestants.

The Sun News of Myrtle Beach says the crowd cheered when Trapp beat poker professional Daniel Negreanu (nuh-GRAH’-noo) with a final hand. Supporters wore T-shirts reading: “We’re cheering for the poker playing priest.”

When you’re young, rich and famous, you can do just about anything you want to do. This is true not only in the movies but even in real life. Just take the case of Hollywood celebrity and heiress Paris Hilton. This young lady has hogged the headlines in recent years being involved in a variety of incidents both good and bad.

Now, Paris is even on the casino scene. She’s not on a winning streak, though. What actually made her a popular figure in the casinos is her losing her precious Bentley car to the more skilled poker players. It seems this socialite is not that lucky when it comes to keeping her Bentleys.

Yes, Bentleys because it’s not just one but two Bentleys that 28-year-old Paris has already lost all due to her love for poker. The first time she lost her Continental GT was in 2006 and the second time was just last Monday, May 11, 2009. Currently, a brand new Continental GTC costs below $200,000 but it seems Paris is not easily lured to getting one again.

The latest buzz is that PartyPoker.com is offering Hilton the chance to win back her convertible Bentley. It won’t be easy, though, because she has to win a heads-up match with PartyPoker spokesman Mike Sexton. The poker room’s offer is a No Limit Hold’em match and Sexton remains hopeful the popular celebrity will take up the challenge and return to the poker table.

Hilton and Sexton first met at the poker table back in 2007 during the Celebrity Invitational in Los Angeles. At that time, Hilton got some help from Sexton just to keep her game.

Which brings me to a home game I just played last week that was anything but enjoyable. The reason being a phenomenon I’m sure many other people are aware of and perhaps have even been guilty of; the home game poker know-it-all. I had the misfortune of having one of these mind-searingly, irritating individuals at a game my buddies and I were playing at a Bar-B-Q. Now at a serious game with other serious players, annoyances and generally unpleasant or at least annoying things are sometimes unavoidable. They are tolerable to an extent because of the situation. One is not playing in that game to make friends or even necessarily to have a good time. For serious players, in a serious game, it is work. Sometimes, like with any job, one simply has to put up with it and get down to business. But when I’m trying to relax and have fun with the game with friends, I want to HAVE FUN! The poker-know-it all removes any semblance of fun.

This person is obnoxious with his constant calculation of odds, recitation of obscure anecdotes, and knowledge of advanced tactics. All of which, mind you, are often slightly inaccurate, as a person who needs to flaunt their knowledge usually has a poor grasp of it. When there is a complication or question about how to divide the pot because of multiple all in calls, or changing chips amongst players, he always has to have his hands in there whether he is involved in it or not. This is so he can show off how quickly he can manipulate chips and calculate what amounts go where. Since this person is usually a relative stranger to any group, he has no idea the skill level of the people he is sitting with. So the fact that he assumes he is so much more advanced in skill level is that much more irritating.

So I beseech all of you reading this. The fact that you are reading a poker website makes it very possible that you may have at some point in the past exhibited traits that would conform to the archetype of the poker-know-it-all. I must admit that I have done so more than once before. If you have, stop! This person is not enjoyable at all to play with and his presence only serves to ruin what should be a relaxing game with friends. So don’t worry about showing off how much you know, or how much you’ve made at your respective online poker site. Just take the opportunity to have fun.

So just to recap. It is the early nineties and my mom is at the Taj in Atlantic City playing poker. William Shatner and a small cadre arrive consisting of his wife, Vince Van Patten, and one or two bodyguards. They sit down at a table where she proceeds to join them. As bored celebrities without work are known to do, he is looking for hobbies to fill his considerable amount of free time. There is a sizable tournament that weekend and he is trying to get into poker as a serious hobby.

Now it is important to note that at this time I doubt my mom knows anything or cares in the least about star trek. All she knows is that she is sitting directly across from Captain Kirk and that she is not going to leave until she has an autograph for her Trekkie son (me!). she learns very quickly however that this will be no easy task.

Being friendly and uninhibited by nature, she itroduces herself to everyone at the table. Patten and Mrs. Shatner are very nice. Bill is not. In fact he is drunk on top of being unfriendly. He only proceeds to become moreso as the night goes on. He is a sloppy fat faced drunk who is rude to everyone; from his friends, to the other players, to even the waitresses. To make matters worse, he is terrible at poker. My mom, through the course of the night does two things; she strips several hundred dollars from the enebriated starship captain and becomes quite chummy with his very pleasent wife. After a while she asks her if there’s any chance for an autograph. She quickly shoots down any possibility. She says that there would be no point in asking if he were in a good mood let alone his current belligerent state. She leaves the table with one hand filled with shatners money, but the other devoid of his John Hancock.

This story is a lot longer than I thought it would be. I promise to deliver the grand finale  next week.

Live Long and Prosper.