Alec Wilkinson has a nice profile in the 30 March 2009 edition of The New Yorker magazine of poker-meister [tag]Chris Ferguson[/tag]. The son of a mathematician mother and a game-theorist father, Ferguson seems particularly adept at applying game theory to poker.
I had not realized until reading this article that, despite the threats of lawmakers and politicians, the legal position for [tag]online poker[/tag] in the US is so strong. Arguably, the various laws against online gambling only preclude gambling on “games of chance”, or betting by spectators. Online players of poker, a game of skill and not chance, are thus exempt, at least by one interpretation of the various laws. That neither US State nor Federal Governments have yet prosecuted people for playing or facilitating online [tag]poker[/tag] would seem to support this interpretation.