Cut and run

It's been a good run.

But now it's time for all the troops to come home. Party Poker, PokerStars, Paradise, Pacific and others are reportedly banning U.S. players. Party Poker issued a memo saying they will stop transactions with U.S. customers. Both PartyGaming and Neteller have seen their stock prices drop by 60 percent so far today on the London Exchange. Neteller's site has been down for "scheduled maintenance" for hours.

I think it's safe to say that leaving your money with any poker site is a risk at this point. Even if you trust a site, there's no guarantee that it will remain solvent when it loses a huge chunk of its business. I know Party Poker relies on U.S. customers for nearly 80 percent of its business.

So this is how the poker bubble will finally burst -- in a flurry of election-year legislation attached to a port security bill. President Bush is expected to sign the anti-gambling legislation into law with in the next two weeks, and possibly as soon as Wednesday.

Personally, I felt like the poker legislation as it's written wasn't a cause for serious worry. Yes, it was broadly worded, but I thought offshore businesses and banks like Neteller would simply ignore the American law and continue to do business as always. The law doesn't appear to regulate intermediary sites like Neteller, and I thought it would simply become the mainstream workaround of this law.

But because the sites are falling over themselves to ban U.S. players, they've accepted defeat by assuming the worst. Even if the anti-gambling bill is completely unenforceable, it has had the desired effect.

Is this really the end?

I don't know. Everything is in doubt right now.

If this is the last time we play poker on the Internet, it's good to go out with a blast.

Use your player points to accumulate as much junk as you can before it's too late. Win some money quickly. Get your money out while you're still ahead. Make sure everyone knows the way our elected representatives do business. Work for change. Inform yourself.

Most of all, be proud that you were a part of it: hole cams, Chris Moneymaker, Shana Hiatt, 2+2, the blogging community, the boom, free $1,100 bets, Bill Fillmaff, horrible losses, incredible recoveries, suckouts, good beats, smart asses, fanboys, chip tricks, vacations, friends.

They can ban online poker, a game that I love. But they can't take away the experiences -- and the money -- that came from my anonymous friends, the fish who were always waiting for me at the tables, any hour of day.