BY TOM SOMACH

Dan Goldman, former longtime marketing director of online poker room Poker Stars (www.pokerstars.com), is the new marketing director for something called Duplicate Poker (www.duplicatepoker.com).

Goldman had been living in the British Isles doing marketing for the British Isles-based Poker Stars, but recently resigned from the company and moved back to the U.S., where he is from.

He cited the hazy legal status of online poker in the U.S. as the reason for his resignation, noting that several executives of online gambling operations had recently been arrested in the U.S.

So what is Duplicate Poker?

It’s one of several online quasi-poker rooms that are based in the U.S. and claim to be legal in the U.S., because they have removed the element of luck from the game of poker, leaving only skill.

According to the folks who run Duplicate Poker from New York City, the game is like tournament bridge, because players in corresponding seats at different tables are dealt identical or “duplicate” poker hands, and prove their skill by how well they play each hand in comparison with other players who have the same cards. Bad or unlucky cards won’t unfairly hurt a player’s game, as a player=E2=80=99s opponents are getting the same cards.

Duplicate Poker used to be known as e-Poker USA and had the website www.e-pokerusa.com, but changed its name and website a few months ago to, according to the company, more accurately reflect what the site was about.

Other so-called “legal” online poker rooms based in the U.S. are Triple Jack (www.triplejack.com) and Thwart Poker (www.thwartpoker.com).

Goldman is one of the most well-known people in the online poker industry.

His name has frequently appeared in newspapers and magazines, quoting him about one aspect of poker or another, and he hs appeared on ESPN and other TV channels, pontificating about poker=E2–both the online kind and the real thing.

In 2003, when an unknown Tennessee accountant with the Dickensian name of Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) after qualifying by winning a Poker Stars online tourney, Goldman’s p.r. helped make Moneymaker a worldwide household name.

It also helped Poker Stars become one of the biggest online poker rooms in the world.

In 2003 and 2004, Goldman and Los Angeles sportscaster Fred Wallin co-hosted a popular national radio show about poker on the Business Talk Radio Network (BTRN).

The one-hour, live Sunday night show, heard on 75 radio stations throughout the U.S., was sponsored by Poker Stars and featured as guests many of Poker Stars’ stable of poker stars, such as Moneymaker and 2004 WSOP winner Greg “Fossilman”=9D Raymer, who also got into the WSOP by winning a Poker Stars tourney first.

It was the first weekly national radio show in the U.S. about poker.

Goldman is also an avid poker player himself, and has competed in numerous Las Vegas tournaments, occasionally finishing in the money.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)