Posts Tagged ‘Online Poker’

Post-Blom/Hansen Full Tilt debuts New Advertising Campaign

Friday, October 24th, 2014

It’s only been a few days since Full Tilt dumped Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom. And already the online poker site has debuted their new marketing approach, which seeks to appeal to the average person, rather than skilled players who actually care about pros.

Anybody who previously read about Full Tilt’s move away from “Pro-centric advertising” shouldn’t be surprised at the angle that these commercials take. Dubbed “The Call” and “The Bluff,” these new ads are pro-free and feature amateurs trying to make important decisions.

In many ways, the commercials hearken back to the mid-2000s, when poker was seen as a somewhat mystical game where untold fortunes lay. Furthermore, the ads are all about regular guys, with one shoving all-in because he doesn’t think his opponent “has the heart,” while the other guy considers the call because he’s “not leaving without a show.”

All in all, Full Tilt should be applauded for their new approach, which is miles away from their old motto of “Learn, Chat and Play with the Pros.” Take a look at the ads for yourself and see what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGOh-AZTsnE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CL01YcfwuM

Mike Leah wins WSOP APAC High Roller – Grabs $600k and First Bracelet

Friday, October 17th, 2014

With over $3.3 million in live tournament winnings and plenty of huge online poker victories, Mike Leah was starting to enter those discussions about the greatest poker player to never win a gold bracelet. However, Leah finally got his first bracelet in the 2014 WSOP Asia-Pacific $25k High Roller.

Like any high roller victory, this one certainly wasn’t easy as the Canadian was pitted against a stacked 68-player field. Despite the tough competition, Leah built a stack so big that he had over half the chips in play when the final table started. From here, the skilled pro used his advantage to bully other players and adapt when the table dynamic changed.

Leah’s prize for his expert play was a massive A$600,000 payout. Other players who fared well include Jesse Sylvia (3rd, A$216,811), Jonathan Duhamel (4th, A$145,003) and Brian Roberts (6th, A$85,027).

Following the win, Leah expressed relief about winning his first bracelet. “I’m obviously very happy – I don’t know if it has sunk in yet,” he said. “I’ve been trying to accomplish this goal for so long. There is just relief that I’ve finally done it.”

Leah went on to discuss how badly things were going for him at the 2014 WSOP APAC, before he turned it around with the high roller win:

I just tried to stay focused on every single hand. I didn’t want to think too far ahead. I wanted to bully the table around, but was trying to find a balance between using my chips and not being reckless.

This has been a great year for me. The first nine events here I felt I really played awful. I punted a bunch of events and wasn’t happy with how I played. It just seems once I can get into a tournament and off to a good start, getting a lot of chips, I really zone in. All the tournaments I have done well in this year have been like that.

2014 WSOP APAC $25k High Roller (AUD)
1st: Mike Leah – $600,000
2nd: David Yan- $360,025
3rd: Jesse Sylvia – $216,811
4th: Jonathan Duhamel – $145,003
5th: Sam Khouiss – $110,078
6th: Brian Roberts $85,027
7th: Sam Higgs – $65,035
8th: Andrew Hinrichsen – $50,021

Poker Pro Matt Smith wins $1 Million in Fantasy Football

Thursday, October 9th, 2014

Fantasy sports have been growing in popularity over the past decade and a half. And since fantasy sports offer positive expected value for those with skill, it’s little surprise that many poker players embrace the activity.

Case in point, numerous poker players flocked to the recent “Millionaire Maker” fantasy football event at DraftKings. For a $27 buy-in, entrants got to play for a $1 million top prize and an overall prize pool of $2.2 million.

As this event got near the end, poker players Brian Hastings, Aaron Jones and Tony Dunst all had a shot at winning. However, it was a lesser-known poker player named Matt Smith who’d eventually capture the title along with a $1 million payout. After winning, Smith wasn’t quite sure what to say so he just tweeted this:

I don’t even know what to say. I’m in complete shock and can’t thank everyone enough for all the support!

As mentioned before fantasy sports have been attracting more and more people every year. And this has given rise to daily fantasy sports, where players pay a buy-in, draft their team and see the game play out in a single day.

Switching to another note, somehow daily fantasy sports continue to be completely legal across the United States – yet online poker is only legal/regulated in three states. I’m not sure why this is the case….oh wait, yeah I am. Professional sports leagues have done heavy lobbying over the years for various interests, and making sure that fantasy sports stay legal is one them.

The NFL has especially benefited from the widespread popularity of daily fantasy sports – and season-long leagues too – because these generate far more interest in the games. Call it a double standard while online poker waits on the sidelines, but it’s an unfortunate reality now.

Randy “Nanonoko” Lew uncovers Secrets of Multi-Tabling

Wednesday, September 24th, 2014

Randy “Nanonoko” Lew is perhaps the most legendary multi-tabler of all time. The online poker pro has made millions from his ability to handle numerous tables at once and still make profits. And recently, Lew was in the sharing mood as he offered up some great tips on how players can become better at multi-tabling. Here’s a quick synopsis on the five pieces of advice that Nanonoko offers:

1. Add Tables Slowly

One of the biggest faults of multi-tablers is that they try to move up tables too quickly. But rather than worrying about how many tables you’re playing, you should concentrate on win rate and move up slowly.

2. Use a Heads-Up Display (HUD)

When playing 10 tables or so, you don’t have time to analyze each player at every table. So HUDs can help you quickly identify which players are loose and tight.

3. Limit Distractions

Keep your phone away, TV off and distance yourself from any other distractions. After all, it’s nearly impossible to focus on many tables when you’re worried about what your latest text says.

4. Use Hotkeys

Rather than wasting time clicking the bet, fold and check buttons in the exact spot, hotkeys help you do this with a simple keystroke. Using hotkeys can even be helpful for bet sizing, such as a 3 big-blind bet for example.

5. Tile your Tables, rather than Stack Them

Tiling tables is better because it gives you a better visual of all the action. Stacking, on the other hand, makes it more difficult to follow each street on every table.

If you’d like to see Nanonoko explain these tips in their entirety, please visit PokerListings and watch the multi-tabling video.

Greg Merson signs with WSOP.com

Thursday, September 18th, 2014

In a day and age where sponsored poker pros are becoming an endangered species, Greg Merson managed to land a sponsorship deal with WSOP.com. The 2012 Main Event champion will become the gaming site’s first-ever sponsored player.

Merson gained international fame after winning the 2012 Main Event along with $8,531,853. That same year, he also won a WSOP $10k Six-Handed NL Hold’em tournament along with $1,136,197. Thanks to these massive scores and others, the 26-year-old has already accumulated $10,962,188 in live tourney winnings.

Another great thing about Merson is that he’s not just some donk who luckboxed a big tournament. He also frequently makes a killing in live cash games on the East Coast. Based on everything Merson brings to the table, it’s no wonder why WSOP.com Head of Online Poker, Bill Rini, was so enthusiastic in the following statement:

Greg is a terrific ambassador for the game of poker. He loves the game, is passionate and opinionated about its future, and he will help us spread the word about our offerings and ensure the poker playing community has a respected, experienced voice to help shape WSOP.com moving forward.

Rini’s words are a total 180 from what Ty Stewart, Executive Director of WSOP, said when asked about if their iGaming operation would sponsor players. Here’s a look at what Stewart had to say on the matter:

On the land based side of the WSOP, we’ve always shied away from signing personal endorsements with individual players. As an organizer who has a key role in…the outcome of the game we see ourselves in the league function, aimed to be impartial and to have maximum trust and integrity.

Perhaps the WSOP operation felt that Merson was special and decided to alter the policy that Stewart discussed. Whatever the case may be, it’s nice to see an elite player like Merson finally land his first sponsorship deal.

Barack Obama: A Tight Poker Player

Saturday, September 6th, 2014

Enter the term “poker” in the Google News feed and you’re likely to turn up plenty of results involving politics. And in most cases, the term is badly misused. But the Economist recently gave applying poker to politics a shot and didn’t do such a bad job. Here’s a look at what they wrote regarding Barack Obama:

HE CALLS himself a “pretty good” poker player. Barack Obama’s poker-buddies, including Illinois politicians who played with him weekly when he was a state senator, tend to agree. Quizzed by profile-writers, they have described a cautious, canny card player.

Mr Obama would bluff only if he had halfway-decent cards, they recalled. When opponents bet high, Mr Obama would not engage unless he held a strong hand of his own.

As president, he is said to favour a more demure card game, spades. That may be just as well. At a bumpy moment in history, Mr Obama is strikingly, even confoundingly, reluctant to bluff.

All during his election campaign, the poker media world enjoyed focusing on Obama’s love of poker. And many hoped that Obama would become a champion for online poker, furthering federal legislation along the way. Well, this never happened because Obama has a lot on his plate. But it’s interesting to see that the media is still harping on Obama’s poker skills almost seven years later.

This time, the Economist is trying to relate poker to Obama’s handling of the Ukraine situation. The President doesn’t want to use military action to intervene with the conflict between Ukraine and Russia/Russian separatists. But if things continue escalating, could Obama eventually play his hand more aggressively in the future? We’ll see…but for the time being, it looks like he is content to sit back and be more passive.

Daniel Negreanu reveals why he chose PokerStars over FTP, UB and Party

Sunday, August 10th, 2014

It seems like Daniel Negreanu has been the face of PokerStars forever. So it’s hard to remember him representing a different online poker site at any point in time. However, going back to 2004, Kid Poker was actually involved in his own poker room called FullContactPoker.

Some players today may recognize this site because it’s where Negreanu writes all of his blog posts from. But back then, it was a full-fledged internet poker room that mainly attracted Americans.

Negreanu helped FullContactPoker quickly experience success by undertaking a massive promotional effort. This included doing up to 50 radio interviews a day across the United States and Canada, plus getting the word out through other channels. His poker site showed such promise that one company even wanted to buy him out for $170 million.

However, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) came about at the end of 2006, thus throwing the US-friendly poker market into disarray. This forced Negreanu to quickly find something else to do with FullContactPoker. So he ended up signing a deal with PokerStars and moving his player base there.

While this and the $170 million deal are interesting enough, the selection process used by Negreanu to pick PokerStars is a story in itself. Here’s a look at what he told iGaming.org about why he ended up choosing Stars:

Signing with PokerStars was as simple as this, there were several sites interested in having my services including UltimateBet, Full Tilt Poker and PartyPoker. For me it came down to integrity and which site I trusted the most, had the best software and the best vision for the future. It wasn’t about the highest bidder for me; it was about who’s the biggest, who’s the best, and who’s going to be the biggest in the future.”

I believed in PokerStars from the start, as the company was built by a group of IBM professionals. They weren’t some random poker-playing dudes who wanted to be businessmen. Full Tilt was off the mark; I wasn’t going to sign with them, because I didn’t trust the infrastructure even back then. If I was going to attach my name to something, game security, integrity, and longevity were most important.

Given that Party Poker’s player base has dropped considerably, Full Tilt had to close before being bought by Stars, and UB Poker went completely under never to resurface again, PokerStars definitely proved to be the right choice. Furthermore, it appears as if Negreanu is about as good at reading business deals as he is with poker opponents.

Will Amaya Gaming finally get PokerStars in the US?

Friday, June 13th, 2014

The big poker news today – and it’s colossal – is that Amaya Gaming has made a deal with the Rational Group to buy PokerStars, Full Tilt and live tournament tour assets for $4.9 billion. For years people have speculated about the worth of PokerStars and now they know.

One of the key points of this deal is that Isai Scheinberg and his son, Mark, relinquish their shares in the company and ride off into the sunset with billions. The reason why this part of the deal is so big is because it means that PokerStars might finally be able to enter the elusive United States market.

The legal US online poker market is fully underway, with Delaware, New Jersey and Nevada all featuring regulated gaming sites. And so far, PokerStars’ attempts to enter these states have went like this:

Delaware – Stars was denied because Delaware is mainly looking for companies that offer both casino and poker games.

New Jersey – Review of PokerStars’ application has been suspended for two years in the Garden State.

Nevada – Nevada evoked the “bad actor” clause to prevent Stars from entering their market for at least 10 years.

The key point behind PokerStars’ bad actor status in Nevada is that they violated the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Moreover, the Scheinberg’s retained ownership of the Rational Group after they’d violated the UIGEA.

But now we have Amaya running the show at PokerStars. The Canadian supplier of gambling equipment has no ties to Black Friday, meaning it’s hard to use the bad actor excuse to keep them out.

Of course, despite what state gaming regulatory bodies may say, this is all about anti-competitiveness and helping in-state casinos get off to a strong start. So no matter how illogical it seems, certain US states may still try to call upon PokerStars’ past to keep them out, even though an entirely different company is now in charge.

As for Amaya, it’s likely that they were willing to spend $4.9 billion on Rational’s assets because they know there’s even more potential for Stars IF they can get into the US.

WSOP Seniors Event has another Banner Year

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

Last year, we discussed how the 2013 WSOP Seniors Hold’em tournament was a record-smashing event as it drew 4,407 players. Well, it doesn’t look like the popularity of this tourney has leveled off any because the 2014 WSOP $1k Seniors Hold’em event eclipsed last year’s mark by drawing 4,425 entrants.

People often talk about how poker has become a young man’s game, most notably those who have endless hours to spend grinding in online poker. However, back-to-back giant fields in the WSOP Seniors tournament show that the older generation still has a place in the game too.

Moving on, you might be wondering who the big winner in the record-setting 2014 WSOP Seniors Hold’em event was. That honor belonged to Dan Heimiller, who navigated through the massive field to win his second-career gold bracelet along with $627,462.

Unlike 2013’s winner, Ken Lind, Heimiller is a full-time poker pro who’s been in the game for 20 years. And his previous biggest victory included taking down a 2002 WSOP Seven Card Stud event. But Heimiller’s latest bracelet means so much more to him than the one from 12 years ago.

“Back in 2002, it wasn’t for as much cash, so that makes this one a lot more important,” he said. “It was also a smaller field and wasn’t as prestigious back then. It was a great feeling, but this one feels extra spectacular because it was for such a big prize.”

This victory probably tasted even sweeter since Heimiller outlasted 2008 WSOP ME third-place finisher Dennis Phillips at the final table. He also beat retired firefighter Don Maas heads-up to secure the victory. Heimiller, who’s more of a mixed games player, showed that his Hold’em game isn’t too bad either.

“My No-Limit game game seems to be catching up,” he joked. “Up to a couple of years ago, I used to tell people No-Limit was my worst game. There seemed to be a lot of people who had a great grasp of it, so I was an underdog. But now I guess I’m able to hold my own.”

2014 WSOP $1k Seniors Hold’em Championship Final Table
1st: Dan Heimiller – $627,462
2nd: Don Maas – $388,054
3rd: David W. Smith – $279,412
4th: Anthony Wise- $206,492
5th: Dennis Phillips- $153,883
6th: David Tran – $115,651
7th: Barry Schwartz – $87,615
8th: David Vida – $66,945
9th: Jim Custer – $51,573

Daniel Negreanu: “Even when I went broke, I woke up the next day ready to kick ass”

Thursday, May 29th, 2014

With a lucrative PokerStars sponsorship deal and over $21 million in poker tournament winnings, Daniel Negreanu is one of the richest players in the world. So it’s weird to think of him as once being broke. But like pretty much every poker pro, Negreanu did go through a period in Toronto where he struggled to make it. However, as he told iGaming, he never let his bankroll problems keep him from sticking with poker.

“Even when I went broke, I woke up the next day ready to kick ass,” Negreanu said. “There was no quit in me and I was determined to learn how to play better after getting beat. When I was getting beat I paid attention to why I was getting beat and I was trying to learn from every situation. Of course there was bad luck, but even at that age I didn’t believe that my losses were just due to being unlucky. It was more the sense of, ‘What am I doing wrong?'”

Obviously Negreanu worked through his early issues to become one of the game’s best. And this allowed him to realize his dream of playing against other top players in the WSOP. To hear Negreanu describe it, the WSOP, and Las Vegas poker in general, was much more exclusive:

Playing a WSOP event was big back in the day, it was for real men! It’s not like nowadays with all those pansy 1ks. The minimum buy in was $2,000 and most of them were $3,000 or $5,000. If you wanted to play small you’d play satellites, while nowadays there’s even $20 events going on everywhere, so I think it has lost a lot of its luster in terms of having that financial barrier. If you think to the nineties, the smallest buy in was bigger than it is now, which is kind of backwards if you ask me.

If someone sat down at your table and you didn’t know them there was no chance they were any good. It was just impossible, because if they were good, they would’ve been in Vegas playing before that. The biggest change with today is, if you sit down at a table there’s some 20-year old kid I don’t recognize and people tell me that he’s won $4,000,000 online that year. That’s the huge difference, now the unknowns are much stronger while back then those were probably just businessmen who came to enjoy themselves

If you’d like to see more on what Negreanu had to say about the old days of poker, we highly encourage you to check out Part I and the more-entertaing Part II of his iGaming interview.