Black Friday.....15.04.2011

Yesterday the 3 largest poker sites were indicted and closed down to American players by the FBI.

Executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker were charged with various offences including bank fraud and money laundering.

This is a terrible blow to all the online pros from the states who have effectively lost their jobs overnight.

This development affects all of us however as traffic volume will decline worldwide.

I'm not sure how the game quality will change until I grind today or tomorrow but this is pretty bad news for the industry which has thrived over the last 10 years

Panic has ensued in the poker community with particular reference to monies held on site accounts and whether they will be lost or not. Pokerstars released a brief statement to non-u.s players reassuring them that it will be business as usual for their games. I hope this is the case. I will still withdraw some extra cash tomorrow as a precaution

Poker will always have an uncertain future and as a poker pro you just have to accept that and be ready to move on in a blink of an eye. I'm sure people like Doyle Brunson can relate to you far worse stories of how things used to be as a poker pro when there was no online world.... bare that in mind

Even through the uncertainty there is one thing that is for sure

Poker will never die......