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Welcome to this week’s edition of Poker Mythbusters.

UIGEA is unenforceable? Busted.

The UIGEA is unenforceable.

The UIGEA is a bad law.

The wording of the UIGEA is too vague.

Ok….I guess we should file those under…

Ben Lamb will win the 2011 WSOP Main Event

Phil Hellmuth can’t play mixed games.

Liv Boeree is only sponsored due to her looks.

In case some of you missed it, the first two have been convicted on UIGEA violations.  Daniel Eremain and Todd Lyons were both found guilty by a jury on Monday on a bevy of charges, including UIGEA violations.

This hasn’t been a good week for online poker.  First, Sheldon Adelson claims he is opposed to legalizing online poker, and now the DOJ has its first convictions under the UIGEA.

Please spare me the “but they were a sportsbook” speech.  If you have been following recent developments, you know the DOJ is making its case that sports betting can be influenced by the bettor the same way poker is.

If a jury buys that argument, then guess what folks – poker will be officially classified gambling. It doesn’t matter what we know, it matters what they can convince a jury of.

This also makes me wonder how much leverage this will give the DOJ in current negotiations.

Now it can point to this and say “hey guys, we know now that we can get a conviction on this. Pony up some money.”

Regardless of what people argue, this was a huge victory for the DOJ. Time to go on the offensive folks.