Hodge Podge, Monday Edition

A few quick hits:

1. Thanks to AlCantHang for setting up the BBT5. The first tournament was last night. I had an excellent opportunity to lock up a TOC seat early, having the chip lead with 7 players to go. Instead I flamed out in 5th. Well done.

2. Things are getting worse and worse for online poker. It's getting that I can't even keep track of all of the open issues anymore. Let's see what we have:

* The State of Kentucky is suing various online sites, trying to recover the losses of Kentucky residents from playing poker online since 2005;

* A grand jury in the Southern District of New York is investigating Full Tilt on money laundering and assorted other charges;

* There's legislation making its way through the Massachusetts legislature that would make online poker illegal and punishable by up to two years in jail and a $25,000 fine;

* Let's not forget the looming enforcement date (June 1, 2010) of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act;

* The arrest in Las Vegas last week of Daniel Tzvetkoff, owner-operator of payment processor Intabill, on charges that originated out of New York of money laundering and wire fraud (and violations of the UIGEA to boot);

* There are also various civil suits: Everest Poker versus Harrah's; Full Tilt versus several of its former employees; etc.

The arrest of Tzvetkoff should serve as a wake-up call for everyone in the online poker industry and especially the owners of Full Tilt. Given that most grand juries will indict a ham sandwich (if the old saying is believed), what kind of odds will people offer that a high-profile arrest of Howard Lederer or another Team Full Tilter with heavy involvement in FTP management will occur during the $50K Player's Championship or during the WSOP Main Event?

3. It's a crowded tournament calendar at the moment. You've got EPT San Remo and Monte Carlo in Europe; the WPT Champs at Bellagio; WSOP Circuit at Caesars Las Vegas; Venetian Deep Stack in Vegas; the Cal State Champs at Commerce starting in roughly two weeks; and APPT Macau just after that. It's getting so that there's always a tournament somewhere if you don't mind a piece of traveling.