These days, poker fans crave quality programming that also engages them. A new network has been paying attention to the changing attitudes of players and will soon “answer the call” by launching a product that will give poker fans fresh content and unprecedented interactivity.
The all-new PokerVision Network is slated to be available on multiple platforms starting later this year. Based in Canada, the network hopes to tie together the worlds of poker, eSports, and gaming in a way that both entertains and engages poker fans.
Back in December, ePlay Digital Inc announced their plans to launch the PokerVision Network and was actively acquiring studio space in various cities in Canada. The network plans to provide coverage of poker tournaments throughout Canada and around the world.
One of their acquisitions is the Canadian Poker Tour. While the tour is presently inactive, reviving it as part of the network would give the network an instant well of content while giving poker players another live series to grind.
While the network will place significant focus on Canadian poker, there will be plenty of “global” poker content as well. For example, the network is presently presenting Streamboat from the British Virgin Islands, where Bill Perkins, Jaime Staples, Jeff Gross, and Matt Staples are enjoying some R&R and playing some online poker aboard Perkins’ yacht..
#STREAMBOAT started off nice…..stay tuned to https://t.co/fi7oror36r for updates fun and chaos and sometimes #poker pic.twitter.com/qTmB8twYuv
— Bill Perkins (Guy) (@bp22) March 23, 2017
On their site, PokerVision promises monthly original Reality TV content with titles including Poker Bucket List, Scalpers, Pimp My Poker Game, and The Sunday Grind.
Without even seeing a synopsis of any of the listed programs, my interest is piqued by Pimp My Poker Game and Poker Bucket List because these two programs have a lot of potential material to work with.
READ: 5 Items on Every Recreational Poker Player’s Bucket List
In terms of Pimp My Poker Game, it would be great to see up-and-coming players, or even rank amateurs, get coaching from some of the game’s biggest names. It could even provide a platform for some lesser-known pros to gain some popularity while helping recreational players improve their game.
The Poker Bucket List could literally go anywhere in the world or include anyone in the poker world. Producers could go the easy route and pick players wanting to play in events like the WSOP Main Event, but I hope they instead go with more interesting stories that illustrate the diversity of the game and how it’s more than just “winning the big one” or “netting the huge score.”
According to press releases and their website, PokerVision Network will be more than poker. The channel claims that “eSports and gaming will be front and center in the PVN broadcast schedule.”
As of yet, they haven’t elaborated as to what this means, but with the explosion of eSports globally, it will be the perfect fit for the network. The network will be able to easily tie in both worlds as there are many poker players that are either former gamers or dabble in certain eSports games.
The network plans to give viewers easy access to their product by proving multiple ways to access content. In addition to their TV network, content will be available through social media, online streaming and mobile apps.
This access will give the audience what PokerVision calls “previously unseen levels of interactivity.” Jim Nelles, Head of Broadcasting for PVN, stated in the December presser that “The days of single-screen viewing are gone. Audiences expect great content on a TV screen complemented by interactivity on tablet and mobile. PVN is stepping up to deliver exactly that. We will drive larger and engaged audiences in the face of massive competition for viewership.”
Think about it. How many of you still watch live broadcast or cable TV on a regular basis? Looking back at my personal viewing habits, I usually only watch regular TV once a week. Otherwise, I stream most of my programming.
Networks have to have multiple platforms in order to maximize their reach, and that’s increasingly the case when trying to reach poker fans, too. With the popularity of mediums like Twitch, many poker fans prefer to stream their content rather than wait for an edited version. It’s faster and much more interactive.
Due to the breadth of content offered on the network, PokerVision could create some interesting partnerships. Poker is the easiest in this regard, and they have already signed a big name in Adam Schwartz.
Many of you know him as the host of the TwoPlusTwo Poker Podcast while others know him for his color commentary on Canadian Poker Tour broadcasts.
It will be interesting to see what other professionals are brought into the fold from the poker industry in the upcoming months. Will there be ambassadors to the brand a la Poker Central or will they focus on individuals with skill sets highly relevant to broadcasting?
If they revive the CPT, we might see some partnerships with new Canadian casinos online as well with the host casinos. Who knows what deals will arise in connection with the reality shows?
What if someone wants to play in Bobby’s Room as part of the Poker Bucket List? Will we see the channel partner, even briefly, with Bellagio? There are many potential deals out there to be made.
…and we haven’t even speculated about eSports and gaming. Alex Dreyfus and the GPL are paving the trail in that arena, so it’ll be interesting to see how PVN proceeds.
PVN has yet to launch their broadcast network and is presently trying to secure deals with providers. If PokerVision Network is something that interests you, tell them!
On their website, there’s a form you can fill out to let your cable or satellite provider know that you want PVN. A copy is sent to both PVN and your provider.
New TV networks aren’t automatically picked up by providers, so you have to let them know you’re interested. The more that inquire on the network, the more likely that the provider will be interested in signing a deal.
This is the final installment in my three-part series about live poker in London. In my last two columns (see Part 1 here and Part 2 here) I wrote about three of the major poker rooms in London: Aspers, Hippodrome, and The Empire. In this, the last of the three-part series, I’ll address the remaining major casino: “The Vic”, as well as the four minor casinos: The Grosvenor at Leicester Square, The Genting Mint at Cromwell, The Palm Beach, and the Horseshoe.
Of course, if you’re not planning on heading to London anytime soon, you can join a leading UK online casino.
“The Vic” is London’s longest-standing poker room. It’s official name is the more cumbersome, “The Poker Room at the Victoria Grosvenor Casino”. It’s located at 150 Edgware Road, up near Paddington Station on the east side of the city. There are 30 tables here, making it London’s second-largest poker room in size to the Aspers — though the poker room itself is physically larger, with much more space between the tables.
This is a 24/7 room, with as many as 14 or so cash games going at one time, the remainder of the tables often taken up by a tournament. They nearly always have either a £1/2 or £1/1 game — both of which were going on each of the three times I visited the room. They also had a £2/5 game going on the Wednesday evening I played in their 7 pm tournament. They get larger games as well, with £5/5 and £10/25 spread in their slightly elevated high-limit section. The rake is what it is in the other London rooms, 10% up to £5 in the lowest limit games, 5% up to a £10 max in the larger games, and a time charge for the biggest games. Their £10/25 game is raked at £13 pounds from each player for each 30 minutes of play
There are no player comps to speak of. The regular freeroll tournament is funded by a £1 drop from every pot of £20 or larger. There’s a reasonably priced poker menu with table-side drink and food service. They do make one accommodation to the players in the bigger game — as they will “run it twice” in the £2/5 or higher games, at the players’ option. I met a couple of guys who make their living here; though the lowest stakes games that I was in were fairly tame and beatable. The £57 tournament I played in seemed about as soft as the lowest stakes tournaments I’ve played in elsewhere (though I busted out fairly early and did not re-enter).
Of all of the six casinos I played in, the Vic seemed the most comfortable for the serious, regular player — though I actually preferred the atmosphere of one of the smaller casinos, The Mint. I got the impression that the most serious veteran players made The Vic their poker home — if only because there were fairly large stakes regularly available here — and they had been coming here before there were any other options.
Open 24/7 in the ❤ of London
The Vic and The Poker Room #GCLondon #TheHomeOfPoker pic.twitter.com/lewOLWqa3T— Grosvenor Victoria (@GCVictoriaLDN) February 13, 2017
Located at 43-45 Cromwell Road, the Genting Mint is a small homey casino with just six poker tables crowded together in two rooms. They aren’t open until 7 pm, with games running until 7 am or so. They spread £1/2 Hold’em, with a £50 min and £500 maximum buy-in; and pot limit Omaha with a £100 minimum and £1,000 maximum.
Unique to this room, as far as I know, is a version of dealer’s choice. The game is limited to PLO, but each button chooses whether it is the 4-, 5-, or 6-card variety of the game (assuming there are enough cards to sustain each game).
There’s a small bar in the room; and an extremely inexpensive restaurant downstairs, offering a buffet or a la carte items — with table-side beverage and food service. I found the place to be extremely hospitable, warm, and friendly — and the players more interested in having a good time than extracting a profit. I would make this my regular room if I lived in London; and I’ll gladly go back the next time I’m in town.
There is a single table on the gaming floor of the Grosvenor Casino in Leicester Square. I visited there on a Tuesday night at about 10:30 pm, after I had seen a show. They open precisely at 7:30 pm, and spread £1/1 no limit with a 10% £5 max rake. Compared to the other poker rooms, this place is kind of a dump, but it’s also clearly the softest game in town — the place where players with the least poker experience come to gamble it up for a few hours of leisure. Stacks may be relatively short — with a £40 minimum and £200 maximum buy-in; and the rake may be unbeatable, but you’ll definitely have the best chance here of being the best player at the table. Just don’t expect any freebies or amenities.
There are two other regular poker rooms in London: The Palm Beach and the Golden Horseshoe. I did not visit either of them, but I learned something about each. The Palm Beach, located on 30 Berkeley Street in the Mayfair section of London, opens at 7:00 pm and regularly spreads the very biggest games in London, from £5/10 to £25/50. It is generally known as an extremely classy club. Unlike all of the other live poker rooms in London, the Palm Beach Casino states that they require formal attire and membership 24 hours prior to being allowed to enter the casino floor.
The Golden Horseshoe, located in the Baywater section of London, is known as a very friendly, low-stakes, and casual place, with a regular £1/2 game.
On the face of it, poker and sports betting seem almost polar opposites. The bookmakers and online sites offering a seemingly endless choice of markets to bet on seem worlds apart from the structure provided by the game of poker. However, there may be more to it than meets the eye. If you fancy a flutter on the horses or betting on your first accumulator after a life of sitting at the card tables, or vice versa, here are three similarities between poker and sports betting.
Whatever you choose to gamble on, knowledge is perhaps one of the most important skills in a gambler’s arsenal. You wouldn’t see a Hold’em player suddenly decide to jump straight into a Razz game expecting to turn a quick buck or even to be profitable. Similarly, football punters don’t bet on the Belgian fourth division without knowing at least a little bit about the teams and players within it.
Just because a friend of a friend says a certain horse is a surefire winner, make sure you do your homework first before placing a bet. Someone might advocate a particular poker discipline as the best possible game you should be playing, but if you aren’t familiar with the rules you ought not sit down at the tables to begin with. Researching the game you want to play as well as the sport you are betting on will definitely serve you well in the long term.
Both poker and sports betting aficionados understand the importance of playing within your means. Not only does this mean not betting more money than you can afford to lose, but it also means betting the right amount with regard to the situation that presents itself.
In poker there are often times when you must take a hard look at your bankroll and think about how many buyins you have for a tournament or for a certain stakes. In sports betting you also need to keep an eye on the funds you have, just in case a situation presents itself where you might want to bet a larger amount than usual. Just remember to keep an eye on your overall bankroll at all times.
Just like you’d sit and wait for a good hand in poker, sometimes it’s better on certain occasions to wait for a profitable sports bet opportunity to come in, as opposed to jumping straight at the first opportunity someone mentions to you on Twitter. Once you’ve placed the bet, nothing gets the nerves jangling like waiting for your accumulator to come in, just like when you wait with bared breath for your triple-barrel bluff to get through or for someone to call your river bet when you’ve got the nuts.
In conclusion, there are certain skills you can use across both poker and sports betting. Key factors such as knowledge and patience can get you into profitable situations, whilst bankroll management will ensure that you stay in these profitable situations for as long as possible.
If you’ve enjoyed this article, we also recommend that you read our 12 tips for poker beginners.
Amongst the practically infinite amount of poker strategy content out there these days, you’ll find many lists: how to win, what to do, what to avoid, and so on. Even my last article here on Cardplayer Lifestyle was a list! The truth is that if you really want to be a consistent winner, and not a one-time success, you need to put in a lot of work. Only then will you truly see great results.
The reason many players fail over the long term is that they struggle to realize what the most important areas of their game are to improve at. So what should you do? What is the best way to improve your game? There’s plenty of ground to cover, and at the end of this post, I’ll recommend some additional materials that I know you’ll find helpful. In the meantime, let’s agree that the 5 steps towards becoming a better player include: evaluating your game, making a plan, mastering pre-flop strategy, learning to play vs. different opponents, and mastering poker’s mental game.
Naturally, it is going to be close to impossible to fix all your mistakes if you do not even know what they are. Thus, evaluating your game is probably the most important step in becoming a winning poker player.
Ideally, you’d want to get some professional help and get coaching or at least someone to analyze your game and highlight your mistakes. If, however, you’re not ready to spend any money on that, you can just ask a poker-playing friend of yours for some help. Just be sure to choose someone who you feel is a better player than you, with a good understanding of the game.
So what are the ways to analyze your game?
This is by far the most effective method. I’ve helped hundreds of students instantly improve their online poker game and have tremendous results using database analysis. That’s not to say it’s easy, but it’s certainly worth your time.
For starters, simply filter out biggest winners in your games and compare your stats to them. If you have big differences in one area or another, chances are you are doing something wrong and can concentrate on improving this specific area.
Record your online poker sessions and then watch how you played.
I am pretty sure that you will be surprised with some stuff you are doing and will find some areas in which to improve. More than in other spots, finding leaks via video is extremely hard to execute by yourself, since we are so used to the way we play and decisions we make; we might even miss obvious mistakes. So, again, getting professional help or asking your friend to help you review your video is probably the way to go.
Tried and true, this is a well-known and powerful weapon you can use to become a winning player, but very few players realize the strategy’s full potential.
It is quite easy to mark hands while you play, assuming you use some sort of tracking software, so make sure you do that. Moreover, you can just filter out the spots where you are struggling or look at few of your biggest losing hands and review those while thinking about decisions you made.
As always, getting some help would be beneficial, so it’s best to try and discuss your hands with friends or post them on forums to get some reasonable answers.
Once you finished analyzing your game, this is going to be the second step. If you get a professional review, most likely you have a list already of areas in which to improve. If not, you have to make one in order to concentrate on your most important weaknesses. This ought to be the process:
Just like a seasoned sports bettor doesn’t just bet randomly on his favorite teams, you need to remember to approach poker with a proper plan in place. You have nothing to lose and quite a lot to gain.
I say it all the time: if you make mistakes and play badly pre-flop, it is close to impossible to play well post-flop. If this is the case, you will end up having unbalanced ranges, running too many bluffs, and so on. Thus, step #3 is where you can really start tangibly improving your game.
Here’s a list of the most important things to focus on improving on pre-flop:
Having a balanced range is the starting point for improvement here. Only once you’ve mastered that can you properly move on to more exploitative play.
This area requires an enormous amount of time and effort to study on your own. If you’re looking to make your life a bit easier, I’ll recommend that you take a look at my Pre-flop Strategy Course. In it, I review all of these areas, reveal my strategy, help you build balanced GTO ranges, and show you how to exploit your opponents in the most effective way. It took me hundreds of hours and coaching sessions to fine-tune the methodology, so I humbly believe it’s one of the better resources you’ll find online for mastering pre-flop play.
We already touched upon this briefly in the previous step, but learning how to play against different types of opponents is even more important post-flop. By far the best help you can get here comes from your HUD. If you have proper stats in it, you will be able to see:
In short, realizing the full potential of your poker HUD is very important.
The last thing that I want to touch upon is the mental game. I struggled with it for years and a majority of poker players have at least some mental game issues that prevent them from playing at their best. These days, winning margins are quite slim. That means that if we spew our stacks from time to time, we are going to a have a hard time realizing our full potential.
Try to keep your emotions away from the table. Never start a session when feeling bad or tired. People can get frustrated and angry while playing, so try to prevent this from happening by at the very least not beginning the session in a bad state of mind.
There are, of course, many things you can do to improve your mental game. For starters, I would strongly recommend taking a look at the works of Jared Tendler, renowned author of the Mental Game of Poker.
Taken as a whole, these 5 steps can certainly guide you towards becoming a winning player.
If you want to learn how to analyze your game and fix mistakes, how to play vs. different players, or realize the full potential of your HUD, I’ll again suggest that you claim your FREE course on “How to Win at Poker”. If you’re ready to learn some more advanced tactics, I’ve got plenty of Poker Strategy Training Videos for you to check out as well.
Most importantly, however, keep consistent with your playing routines, always leave enough time for studying and improving your game, and trust that eventually good results will come.
If you’re not familiar with Mike Leah by now, you’re out of the poker loop. The 42-year-old Canadian (he’s single, ladies!) spent 16 years in a sales/management career before leaving it behind in September 2008 to pursue his poker dreams.
Since he started playing, Leah has amassed more than $5.5 million in lifetime earnings, which puts him eighth on Canada’s all-time money list. He also has a World Series of Poker bracelet, four Circuit rings, and numerous online titles.
Most recently, he completed PokerStars’ “COOP” Triple Crown, i.e., winning a title in the Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP), World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP), and Turbo Poker Series of Poker (TCOOP). Leah won two WCOOP titles years ago, and in 2016 he won two SCOOP events. A few weeks ago, he completed the trifecta by topping a field of 503 entrants to win TCOOP-38 ($82 NL Single Draw 2-7) for $6,707.46.
A week before his online win, Leah, who recently became a part of the new online poker site PPI Poker, also snagged a silver “Spadie” at the PokerStars Championship Bahamas when he won Event #87: $10,000 Turbo Super Knockout for $52,740.
We had the opportunity to catch up with Leah to talk about his recent success, joining PPI Poker, and much more.
You were just down at the PokerStars Championship Bahamas, formerly known as the PCA, where you took down Event #87: $10,000 NLH Turbo Super Knockout for $52,740. A lot of people seemed disappointed with the branding change, field sizes, etc. What were your thoughts?
The field sizes there have been in a steady decline each year and this was a continuation of that trend. The cost of going, I think, is the biggest factor along with the decrease of online satellite qualifiers, which took a massive hit after Black Friday and hasn’t recovered. I still enjoy going, as it’s a heck of a lot nicer than Canada in January.
Well I haven’t won any TCOOP’s yet but did receive my winner photo’s from “PCA” today so its almost like I won again pic.twitter.com/IYNLeoGUFH
— Mike Leah (@GoLeafsGoEh) January 24, 2017
Where is your favorite place to play poker in North America?
Playground Poker Club near Montreal, for sure. Everything about the place is first-class, and anyone who hasn’t been should go experience it for themselves.
Where is your favorite place to play poker outside of North America?
I enjoy traveling to new places around the world to play, especially places with beaches and nice weather. I don’t really have a specific poker destination that comes to mind, but I have enjoyed most of my poker trips to places like the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, and Aruba.
How did the opportunity to become a part of PPI Poker come about? What attracted you most to being a part of the team?
I’ve known Casey Jarzabek, Randy Kasper & Gene Castro for almost 10 years, so when they approached me about joining the PPI Poker team it was one of the easiest decision I’ve ever had. The company’s co-founders, Randy & Gene, have been representing poker players for the last decade, so it’s an amazing fit for them to have started a poker site where everything is geared to making it a great experience for the player.
In your own words, why should players expect on PPI Poker?
There are some obvious benefits such as 35% instant rakeback and only 5% rake on tournaments, to unique features like Tournament Staking & All in or Fold tables. The motto of PPI is: “Where Players Rule.” The player experience is very refreshing compared to most sites out there. PPI Poker really is a new site with fresh ideas, features and benefits for the player.
Aside from yourself, there are five other PPI Poker Ambassadors. Let’s go down the list and you tell me what makes each of them such a formidable opponent.
Casey Jarzabek – “Big Dog” is one of the best online poker players of all time. He chopped the Sunday Million in back-to-back weeks, has over $6 million in earnings, has been ranked #1 OPR more than once, and his personality is one-of-a-kind, as you can see via his Twitch channel.
Darya Krashennikova – Darya is newer to the poker world but is coming on strong. She also has a popular Twitch channel where you can get to know her; helpful if you can speak Russian but entertaining either way. She has been tearing up the PPI Poker tournaments over the last few weeks and showing everyone she’s much more than just a pretty face.
Helio Neves, Pedro Oliviera, Danny Noseworthy – I’ll group them together. All three are very well respected pros that I’ve been battling with online for years. They’re very unique players from three different countries that have all taken different routes to the top of their profession and to our team. You can play with all of us at PPI Poker where there are overlays in almost every tournament, and you can even buy action of us via the tournament staking feature.
Speaking of assessing other players, you once played heads-up against Dan Colman in a major poker event. What were your impressions of him at the height of his heater, so to speak?
Yeah, Dan was on quite a heater in 2014, maybe the only player in the world that had a better year than me. It was pretty cool that we met heads-up in a major event playing for over a million bucks. He was catching a lot of flak at the time for not wanting to talk much, but he was always pleasant at the table and fun to play with (other than, of course, being very difficult to beat). We’ve played quite a bit over the last few years and that feeling has only increased – enjoyable to play with, but don’t want to play with.
Last year you were a part of the GPL Season 1. What was your experience like? Do you feel it was a success?
Like any new venture there were/are some growing pains, but yes, I think it was a successful first season. I really enjoyed the competition and to see so many of the best players in the world compete, get involved, and really care about their team’s success was very cool. It was extremely disappointing for my team, the Paris Aviators, to miss out on the playoffs by a tiebreaker, but other than that it was a great experience.
Very excited to be part of @ParisAviators & the @gpl for season I
Lets goooooo @trickyscarfy @_Fabsoul_ @elkypoker @KitBul #Allonsyyyyyyyy— Mike Leah (@GoLeafsGoEh) February 26, 2016
Do you hope to be involved in Season 2?
Absolutely 100% hope to be involved in Season 2 so my team can improve on our performance and reach the playoffs.
Your Twitter profile says you’re a “mango lover.” Why you love that mango so much?
Mango is my favorite food, but it is also the name of my dog. She is an 11-year-old French bulldog and is the best dog ever. Well, a tie with her brother Cash – named after Johnny Cash –who passed away a couple years ago. I’m also a Cash lover.
Happy 11th birthday to this lil Mango! pic.twitter.com/1fbkw6vGob
— Mike Leah (@GoLeafsGoEh) October 12, 2016
What are your poker plans for 2017?
I’ve started the year with a pretty busy schedule planned. I just finished TCOOP and I won an event to complete the “COOP” Triple Crown, which is a pretty rare feat. I want to win a World Poker Tour event, so I’ll be playing quite a few of them this year, but my #1 goal is to win my second WSOP bracelet. I’m most looking forward to the summer.
Have you had a chance to look over the 2017 WSOP schedule? If so, what are your thoughts?
I browsed through the schedule and I’m pretty excited, but I try not to look too far ahead as I play pretty much every event. My biggest challenge is to focus on the event I’m playing and not looking ahead at what’s coming up.
Attention family, non-poker friends & my dog; I will be away from May 30-July 17 and all of my social media posts will be confusing to you
— Mike Leah (@GoLeafsGoEh) December 19, 2016
This is the second in a three-part series about poker in London. In my last article I wrote about the London poker scene in general, and then some specific information about the largest room, Aspers. This article will look at two of the other large rooms: The Hippodrome and The Empire.
The Hippodrome is an historic building in the heart of Leicester Square, at the intersection of Charing Cross Road and Cranbourn Street. Though the iconic building is brilliantly lit up with a huge neon sign, it would be easy to miss the poker room. It’s up on the 4th floor (with an overflow room on the third floor). The room itself is relatively modest, with just 13 tables, packed closely together on what would otherwise be considered a balcony in this grand old building, with a cavernous ceiling that is five stories high. If you have foreign currency you need to change it on the first floor. As is the case with all casinos that I visited in London, though the exchange rate is generally not as good as non-casinos like banks and money exchange kiosks located throughout the city, you will be able to change your pounds back into your local currency for the same rate as you bought your pounds.
The room’s bread and butter game is £1/2 no limit, with a £400 maximum buy-in. It is raked at 5% up to a max of £10 — the standard in London. They also spread a £2/5 game that runs chiefly on weekends. £5/10 runs “occasionally”; and has a time charge of £8 every 30 minutes. There is no high hand or bad beat jackpot. The comps are fairly generous, with players earning £.60 an hour, and with free soft drinks, coffee, and tea. There’s a reasonably priced poker room menu — with sandwiches, Indian, and Asian food. There are no regular tournaments, though the room spreads one every few months.
I visited the room several times. Though it purports to run games 24/7, there were no games running at 10:30 on Monday morning; two £1/2 games going at 2pm on Monday, four £1/2 games going on Sunday evening, three £1/2 games going on Tuesday afternoon, and six £1/2 games going on Tuesday and Wednesday night. I gathered from seven or so conversations with regulars, that the action is best on weekends and at night, with a demographic that is younger than the other rooms I visited. That being said, I would be remiss if I didn’t also share my impression, and that of others I spoke to about the room, that some of the staff seem to have an unhelpful arrogance about them that is unwelcoming and off putting. Even so, the PokerStars Live Poker Room at the Hippodrome is a comfortable, if crowded place to play, with decent game selection in the evening and on weekends.
The Empire is a nine table poker room right in Leicester Square, just down the block from Hippodrome. It’s on the bottom floor of a full-service casino. They had a £1/2 game going early on the Sunday morning that I visited, and five games going at the other two times I was there, later in the day. I was told that they rarely “go dark” with games going a full 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They rake their game as they do in the other London rooms: small games at 10% up to a £5 maximum; larger games at 5% up to a £10 max. They also advertise a PLO game raked at 5% up to £7, but though I visited the room five times, including a weekday evening, I did not see the game spread. They also run a small tournament at 2PM.
The room has a bad beat jackpot, for which they take out an additional pound when the pot reaches £2. It takes quads beaten to get it. They have another promotion that is funded by the house: If a player wins with a suited 5-6 (known as “The Empire hand”) they get a ticket good for a rake-free playing session. The room also serves free soft drinks, coffee and tea.
I played and I watched play for six or so hours spread over three different sessions. From that limited sample I observed that this was generally a tougher room than the other London poker rooms, with a higher concentration of better, more aggressive players. Even so, the room was a very nice place to play, with an attentive and engaged floor staff.
Think of London and you think of many places for a tourist to visit: Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye, the Tower of London, The Thames River, London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, The Globe, Harrods, wonderful theater, and extraordinary museums. Let me humbly suggest that you may wish to add one more item to that long list of things to do in this great British city: PLAY POKER!
Though generally not known for it, London has quite a robust poker scene, with eight regular public poker rooms scattered throughout the city’s old and new casino sites. They are each accessible by the excellent underground train system. I visited and played in six of them — and was duly impressed. This is the first article in a three-part series in which I’ll do my best to let you know what you can expect to find in each, so you can figure out which room best suits your poker playing desires.
Poker rooms have changed since I first played in London 17 years ago. In those days, the casinos were viewed as private clubs. Players had to join at least 24 hours before they were allowed to play. And there were relatively strict dress codes. Today, with the exception of the upscale Palm Beach Casino, players can “join” upon entrance. And there are no serious dress codes (though shorts and tank tops are generally frowned upon).
There are two broad categories of poker rooms in London: the major “must visit” poker rooms that generally run 24 hours a day; and the minor rooms that only run in the evening. The former consist of: Aspers, Empire, Hippodrome, and The Poker Room at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino. The other places include: The Palm Beach in Mayfield, Grosvenor Leicester Square, The Genting Mint at Cromwell, and The Golden Horseshoe in Baywater. There are also some private gambling clubs that may spread poker from time to time, as well as pubs that have free tournaments, but I won’t be looking at any of those places in these columns.
Let’s start with London’s largest poker room, the Aspers.
With 36 poker tables, Aspers is recognized as the largest of the London poker rooms (followed closely by The Poker Room, formerly known as “The Vic”). It is located right near the Stratford underground stop. The Aspers poker room is inside of a modern casino that is itself located in an urban mall — surrounded by high-end stores, restaurants, and the like. The poker room, though nothing fancy, is perfectly adequate in all respects.
There are new tables that are very well lighted, with fairly new cards and chips. The chairs are just a step above banquet seating; and the televisions are generally visible but not overly large or numerous. There are very few player perquisites. Tap water is available. There is a poker menu that is half price for regular members. (There is a players reward program that players ascend based on their level of play and frequency of play. Poker players typically are on the lowest rung, though daily players may move up to higher categories.)
Aspers spreads three levels of no limit Hold’em, with £1/2 being the most frequent. It’s what was being spread while I visited the room. There’s a £50 minimum and a £500 maximum buy-in, though they also allow players to buy in for 50% of the largest stack. They also regularly spread a smaller game — £1/1 no limit, as well as £2/5 no limit and £5/5 pot limit Omaha. £1/2 was the only game going during the four or so hours that I played on a Tuesday afternoon. The rake is fairly standard for London poker rooms. £1/2 games (and larger games) are raked at 5% up to a maximum of £10. The £1/2 game is raked at 10% up to a maximum of £5. No flop; no drop.
The room also regularly spreads tournaments. There are two daily tournaments, at 2pm and 8pm as well as larger monthly events associated with their online sponsors, 888poker. Check their website for time and buy-in, as these change regularly. One of their most recent monthly events had a £250 buy-in with £100,000 guarantee, that they “blew out of the water”.
Overall, Aspers is an excellent room, generally well run, if a little short on comps and niceties.
Aspers Casino Address: 312 Montifichet Road, The Loft, Stratford, London, UK; 4402085365630
Twitch Poker surged in popularity during 2016 while introducing thousands of fans across the globe to the game of poker.
Last September, two-time WSOP bracelet winner and Upswing Poker Lab creator Doug Polk set the record for all-time largest Twitch Poker score with a second place effort in the PokerStars WCOOP High Roller event for $455,000. The feat was watched by over 23,500 viewers who tuned-in live (with a short delay to prevent hole card “sniping”) to witness one of Twitch Poker’s marquee moments of the previous calendar year.
Shortly following that accomplishment, Polk – also of $10K bankroll challenge fame – uploaded his views on the Twitch Poker Landscape to his DougPolkPoker YouTube channel. The “Poker Thoughts” segment offers a rare glimpse into the live streaming community provided by one of the platform’s elite personalities, and contains insight that both recreational and professional players can benefit from, either as a viewer or streamer.
The 18-minute clip is embedded below, followed by a time-stamp summary for quickly referencing the heads-up No Limit Hold’em specialist’s comments.
(0:00) Introduction to Twitch Poker
* What is Twitch Poker?
* Twitch Poker growth in 2016
* The most popular streamers
* How time delays affect audience interaction
* How the viewer experience differs from the player experience
(3:32) Doug Polk’s Experiences with Twitch Poker
RELATED: Doug Polk Online Poker Bankroll Challenge
* Live streaming is fun, yet also very demanding on the personality
* Frequent streams make it difficult to maintain healthy habits
* Bad poker runs can snowball into “mob mentality” live chat negativity
(9:07) Fellow High Profile Twitch Poker Streamers
(15:18) Team Grind Nation
(15:46) TwitchCon 2016
(17:03) Twitch Poker Landscape
* The poker live streaming industry is constantly evolving
* Poker as a potential Top 5 category on Twitch
* Doug and Grind Nation will continue efforts to “grow poker”
On Wednesday, January 11th, Doug recorded an exclusive update for Cardplayer Lifestyle which includes the poker phenom’s views of Twitch Poker heading into 2017. Those thoughts are embedded below along with a written transcript.
I think Twitch Poker in 2017 has a fairly bright direction. In 2016 it grew substantially and I think we have a lot more personalities coming into 2017 with fan bases, with an audience that should help make it bigger.
You know, one thing I’ve seen a lot of when it comes to Twitch Poker… it depends how big the Directory is for each individual stream. So for example, when ‘jcarver’ (who has the biggest fan base) starts streaming, everyone else gets more views as well because the Directory gets bigger. So as we see more Followers, as we see more streamers… as we see all these things kind of come into place, we’re going to see Twitch Poker continue to grow.
Now I don’t think that it has quite the same potential as say YouTube, where you have a completely worldwide audience that allows for a lot more views, but at the same time I think we’re going to continue to see growth there.
And for a lot of poker players… if you’re looking to get into streaming or into videos, I think Twitch Poker is an excellent place to start to build your brand.
Author’s Note: Interested in learning more about poker strategy? UpswingPoker.com is a poker training website led by high stakes pros and 2016 WSOP Tag Team Co-Champions Doug Polk and Ryan Fee. It offers both free and premium instructional content for both live and online poker players.
There are many things that you have to learn when starting out in poker, so it is very important to know where you should be concentrating your attention at first. For that reason, I’ve compiled a list of 12 of the most important tips for poker beginners.
If you are just starting out, just follow these simple steps and you’ll be good to go.
Without understanding poker’s general rules, hand rankings, and table positions, you just can’t do much in this game. So, before jumping into a game of your choice, spend some time going over all of this until you’ve got all the knowledge down firmly.
Putting the time in to learn these concepts isn’t “sexy”, but you’ll inevitably be glad you did and it will likely save you quite a few bucks along the way.
Understanding rules and hand ranking is pretty straightforward, but many players tend to underestimate the importance of learning about table position. Understanding the importance of position is invaluable and you need to make sure that you understand this concept before starting your game. As a matter of fact, I would say it is one of the most important concepts in poker and realizing its full potential will take you quite far.
You can play more hands in later positions, even with weaker holdings, since there are fewer players left to act. Thus, you’d be increasing your likelihood of taking down the pot uncontested.
Moreover, when you have a position on your opponent, it means you act after him and are able to see what he does before making your decision. This way you already have some information that can help you with your decision making.
Especially if you’re just starting out in poker, try to play many more hands when you have good position. This will save you a lot of trouble post-flop.
This is where some beginning poker players really struggle at first. Your goal should be to learn poker strategy and the game, not to win money from the first day you start playing. If you will be able to concentrate on learning instead of the money, you will be able to reach your goals and actually start playing for reasonable stakes much more quickly.
There are quite a few benefits for starting out at lower stakes, just to name the few:
Before moving to higher stakes, you need to learn basic poker strategy and master the fundamentals. Again, low stakes are perfectly fine for this and you shouldn’t move up to the next level until you feel comfortable with you game and are ready to play with tougher competition.
Try not to force action by playing any two cards that you get. This is something that many players will be doing in lower-stakes games. You should actually do quite the opposite, start out by playing just the strongest hands.
You will likely have an advantage of holding much better hands pre-flop, so use it well and try to raise and bet aggressively, instead of simply limping or calling.
We already touched this a bit and talked that you should be playing more hands when you have position post-flop, but what about pre-flop? Position is hugely important here as well. It will be one on the most important factors to take into consideration when deciding which hands to play and which ones to fold. Quite simply, you usually just win more money when playing from later positions, so try to play more hands when in such a spot.
Here is an illustration of position at a 6-max table:
You should play very tight from EP (early position) and raise just the strongest hands, open few more hands from MP (middle position), then start opening many reasonable hands from CO (cutoff) and play many hands when on the BTN (button; dealer position).
BTN is by far the most profitable position in poker, so you should opt to play a lot there. No matter how the hand goes, if your opponents in the blinds just call or 3-bet and you decide to call, you will always have a position on them post-flop. If you’ve internalized the importance of previous tips from this article, you surely understand that this is a huge deal.
This tip of course only refers to online poker. With limitless action available quite literally at your fingertips, you will be tempted to open and play at more tables, but you need to resist that temptation.
As a poker beginner, your goal is to learn, not to grind. Leave multitabling for a later stage of your development as a player. Only once you master more advanced strategy concepts should you consider playing more tables simultaneously.
Right now, you should be concentrating on your opponents and yourself – notice the hands they play when you get to see a showdown, take notes on any mistakes they are making and how you can use these to your advantage.
Properly being able to focus on these things makes it imperative that you only play at one table at a time.
People do crazy things then we they’re tired, angry, or simply unable to concentrate. You need to learn how to deal with those situations as a poker beginner.
For example, you’ll probably feel frustrated after losing a big pot, or when someone cracks your AA with 9-4 offsuit. It’s important not to let emotions dictate the decisions you make at the poker tables. Anytime you’re feeling anything other than “good”, you ought to take a short break from playing until you feel better again.
Emotions are your enemy at the poker table, so don’t make things worse by starting to play when you already feel bad or angry. I cannot stress enough how important it is – you should never start playing when you feel bad!
(Ed. Note: For more tips on strengthening your mental game of poker, check out our interview with Jared Tendler, who literally wrote the book on it.)
Online poker is a numbers game, so it pays to know poker odds and make decisions based on precise calculations, not your emotions. When you know what odds you have to hit a winning hand and what pot odds you are getting when considering a the call, it is far easier to make the right decisions.
The topic of poker odds is quite complex – numerous books have been written about it. At the very minimum, however, you need to have some willingness to dedicate time to learning poker odds. Without understanding the math part of poker, you will struggle to move up from the beginner’s stage.
Knowing your hand is not enough to make a good decision; you also have to put your opponent on a range of cards he could have. This goes hand in hand with understanding poker odds. Specifically, knowing how likely you are to improve your hand also gives you some additional information about your opponents’ hands. This information helps you make better-educated decisions and eliminates guesswork.
Truthfully, this is one of the hardest poker concepts to master, but one that you cannot avoid if you want to become a winner. Here are a few helpful questions to ask yourself when trying to figure out what your opponents’ cards are:
You need to put in a lot of work until you will be able to assign your opponent accurate range of hands. Do not be too hard on yourself if you struggle a bit in the beginning; it’s perfectly normal. As with most things in poker, the more you practice, the better you’ll get.
Taking some time to make a decision is almost always a good idea. Do not fall into a habit of making decisions automatically; it leads to bad results and stops you from being able to learn properly.
Even if you will be doing many things right, not taking your time could kill all your potential winnings. Therefore, it literally “pays” to take time when making important decisions at the poker table.
(Note that this fits well into tip #5 of just playing one table at a time.)
“You play when you have a hand and you fold when you don’t.”
This is one of the best pieces of advice you can get as a poker beginner. Of course, this changes as you learn more advanced strategies and become a more experienced player, moving up in stakes. For that matter, you’ll be exposed to topics like bluff catching, understanding when to bluff, and much more.
However, at the beginning, this simple strategy of not bluffing too much will help you build good poker fundamentals and learn the game without spewing money.
Kenny Rogers perhaps sang it best in “The Gambler”: you gotta know when to fold ’em.
Stop for a second and think about it. What does it mean when your opponent, who was passive for the last hour and was just calling your bets, raises on the river “out of nowhere”? Could it be a bluff? Unlikely! Therefore, you need to learn to be able to let go of hands that would otherwise be quite strong in spots like those.
It could look awkward to fold so good hands at first, but believe me; you’ll be doing yourself a big favor and will likely save quite a bit of money making “big folds” in the long run.
Of course, this tip shouldn’t be taken too far. Aggressive players notice if you fold too much and take advantage of that.
This is part of the beauty of poker; you need to distinguish different players and adopt different strategies against them. However, versus passive ones – learn to fold when they make a move!
Lastly, even when playing for low stakes online, you just have to use tracking software in order to compete. Almost everyone uses it. If you don’t you’ll be missing a ton of value and information on your opponents.
I am not talking about complex apps, that helps to solve GTO (game theory optimal) spots and other advanced stuff. Start out with a simple software like Hold’em Manager or Poker Tracker and use it to your advantage. Programs like these let you quickly spot different types of opponents and allow you to adapt you strategy accordingly. Moreover, both programs have free trials so there’s nothing to lose.
If you’re looking for more information on helpful poker software, I encourage you to check out my list of The Best Poker Tools.
Nobody can snap their fingers and be an expert poker player in an instant. Getting good at the game takes time and patience. Follow the 12 tips we’ve listed and you’ll be on your way to poker success.
Once you feel like you’ve mastered these fundamentals and are ready to take your game to the next level I recommend taking a Poker Strategy Video Course. It’s almost as valuable as personal poker coaching but it costs just a fraction of the price and covers the most important areas in which you can improve your game. I’ve also got tons more tips and strategy articles on my Poker Coaching site. which you are welcome to visit anytime.
People may argue that the summer is the best time of year to be a poker fan, what with the spectacle that is the World Series of Poker rolling into town. There are more tournaments than seem humanly possible to play, away from the Rio there are cash games aplenty running all around the clock, and the Aria runs a series of popular High Roller events. However, as 2017 is now in full swing, there are a number of reasons why January should be the month that poker fans circle in their calendars.
I should start by congratulating David Peters, who snuck in at the last minute to snatch the Player of the Year away from Fedor Holz (who we’ll touch on later). It’s well deserved from a player who won not only a WSOP bracelet this year, but notched an astonishing 16 six-figure scores in tournaments stretching from Monaco to Macau.
In any event, January is the chance for poker fans from around the world to gear up for a whole new campaign. The slate is wiped clean, meaning that anyone could come out and grab the headlines and forge a path to the 2017 Player of the Year. Who is going to add their name to the list, enjoy an unforgettable year and and enjoy the “prestige and respect” that Peters said came with claiming the title?
January is probably the only the month of the year when I get jealous about my friends hanging out with pigs. The pigs in question are those that live freely on the uninhabited beaches of an island of the Bahamas. It’s unknown how the pigs got there in the first place. Some say that sailors who wanted to come back and cook them there. Others believe that there was a nearby shipwreck and the pig swam to safety.
Pigs aside, the tournament formerly known as the PCA is extra special this year as it is the inaugural stop on the PokerStars Championship circuit, with legs in Panama, Macau and Monte Carlo soon to follow. As the first major festival of the year it gives players a chance to dust off the cobwebs and get back to the table, and this year is no exception, with the festival attracting some big names outside of the world of poker including Kevin Hart and Aaron Paul.
You can tell when the Aussie Millions is fast approaching when poker players are tweeting how best to travel from one side of the world to the other. I’ll be surprised if there aren’t whole planes with only a handful of “civilians”, for want of a better word. And for those who can’t stand one minute without gambling? Well, that’s why they put slot machines in the airport!
The best bit about the Aussie Millions Poker Championship is the fact that there is not one, not two, but three(!) High Rollers, all of which are at eye-watering price points. With $25k, $100k and $250k tournaments (Ed. note: Australian dollars) all within the same festival, all eyes move to the southern hemisphere. Who knows, we may even spot Phil Ivey trying to win an unprecedented fourth $250k Challenge crown after wins in 2012, 2014 and 2015.
Check out our Phil Ivey Interview
There is precedent for people starting a year strongly. I said at the outset that I’d come back to Fedor Holz, and here it is:
Cast your minds back to December 2015 and Holz had just won the $100,000 Alpha8 High Roller for $1.5m. On January 3rd, with 2016 not even a week old, Holz took down the $200,000 Triton Super High Roller for nearly $3.5m and his year was off and running.
Yay!! The double! #WPTPhilippines #SHR pic.twitter.com/qTB7E9QqMQ
— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) January 4, 2016
There’s always a player on a hot run at any point in poker. Think Mercier during the World Series last summer, or Dzmitry Urbanovich at the EPT in 2015. A few names spring to mind at the moment, including Charlie Carrel whose latest cash came when he finished runner-up to Jason Koon Pokerstars Championship Bahamas $100k, but it remains to be seen who is going to kick off their 2017 with a series of wins.
One of my favourite things about poker is the ever-changing faces that populate tournaments. Year in, year out the names change as players opt not to travel to certain events for one reason or another. Take Steve O’Dwyer whose volume has dialled back since the heady heights of crushing High Roller after High Roller on the European circuit; or the aforementioned Fedor Holz, the length of whose retirement remains to be seen.
Similarly, some players may decide to up their volume. A hot 2016 may lead to an even hotter 2017, so there may seem like no time like the present to jump into tournaments that perhaps they wouldn’t have done twelve months ago. Whatever happens, the excitement of players coming back from the holidays is palpable as 2017 gets underway.
Happy New Year Everybody! pic.twitter.com/1GkBALuMdu
— Jennifer Tilly (@Jtillathekilla2) December 31, 2016
Whether you’re a casual fan or an avid watcher of live streams from all over the world, it looks like 2017 as a whole is gearing up to be an exciting year of poker. Enjoy the rest of January!
It is that time of year again!
As we ring in 2017 and look forward to all that it has to offer, I am able to pull out my crystal ball (it may be one of my dog’s tennis balls, but let’s go with it) to make some predictions for our poker world.
Some of my predictions – like #1 – might appear bold, while others might seem a bit obvious to people who follow the goings on in the poker industry, but in any event, here are the top 10 things I think we can expect over the coming year.
Over the past few years, especially since Black Friday, Phil Ivey has shown more and more indifference toward the world of poker. Though he made a brief appearance at the WSOP Main Event, the most time he spent at the tables in 2016 was in the nosebleed high-stakes cash games in Macau, and he seems to have little patience for tournaments or any of the hassle that comes with them.
Follow @Rosters for @philivey updates from Day 2 of the #WSOP Main Event. He starts Day 2 with 26,100 in chips. pic.twitter.com/lhZFhKZ4jg
— Rosters (@Rosters) July 13, 2016
Even though Ivey will be eligible for the Poker Hall of Fame this year, and his popularity among fans remains high enough for nomination and possible HOF induction, he will likely be absent from the poker scene throughout the year. His focus is most likely on money-making ventures in the sports betting world.
Check out our exclusive interview with Phil Ivey
After several years of no progress for online poker in the United States, I believe this will be the year for change. Pennsylvania is a lock, and either New York or Michigan could greenlight it as well, all within the first six months of the year.
Pennsylvania came close in 2016, with the House voting to approve online gaming expansion, including online poker, but the Senate departed for the holidays without voting at all. With a push already taking place in the House and Senate, online gaming will be legalized within the next few months. New York also came close to legalizing online poker and popular mobile casinos to go with its new land-based casinos with a positive Senate vote but not enough support in the House. New York will finish the job in 2017. Michigan is also a possibility, as the state made great progress in 2016. With the right lobbying efforts, there is a solid chance that Michigan could join the ranks.
The incoming Trump administration wants Senator Jeff Sessions to be the new US Attorney General. He is likely to be confirmed for the position. Once in office, he can do Sheldon Adelson‘s bidding to hurt online gaming in the US.
Sessions’ political leanings are strictly conservative, and his loyalty to his party is without question. If notorious Republican donor Sheldon Adelson hits the right notes, Sessions as US Attorney General could easily be persuaded to reverse the 2011 Department of Justice Wire Act decision. That 2011 decision allowed states to legalize online poker and gambling, and a reversal by Sessions would take that away. All states – currently New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware – offering online gaming may be forced to stop all activities until the courts can issue a decision.
My previous prediction for two states to legalize online gambling stands, as I believe they will want to do it before Sessions changes the law in order to band together as a more influential force in the courts.
European online poker players know that the market is fragmented. Those located in France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal are separated from other countries and have much smaller player pools. That might not be the case for long.
Representatives from these countries, along with the UK, held talks in 2016 to break down those walls and share online poker liquidity. Portugal just took the biggest steps in recent weeks by submitting a plan to the European Commission, and if no objections are raised, the approval for liquidity could come in three months. Should all countries figure out how to adjust the tax laws appropriately, online poker in Europe can thrive again. I predict all this will happen in 2017.
The Run It Once online poker site was announced in the middle of 2016, and Phil Galfond has been putting the pieces together ever since. His desire to offer a player-friendly, low-rake online poker site reminiscent of old-school PokerStars is moving forward.
The site is likely to launch on a global scale by the summer of 2017. Since Andrew Lichtenberger already launched the beta version of his LuckyChewyPoker, Galfond may be able to build on the player criticisms of that site and make Run It Once a better product. The poker world is eagerly anticipating Galfond’s contribution to the industry, and I predict it will be very well received.
I want a fair, honest, transparent poker site that believes in the dream that I have lived: https://t.co/Zl1AM6rHO8
— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) September 1, 2016
The Team SportStars part of the overall PokerStars team pro roster remains a prominent part of the company’s marketing efforts. Fatima Moreira de Melo has been on the team for many years and still plays an integral role in the company. The other members – football legends Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr – were in the spotlight in 2016, with appearances in everything from the Duel videos to the #RaiseItUp campaign.
The latest marketing ploy involves Ronaldo in a #RaiseItUp video battle with US basketball pro Dwayne Wade. While Wade is not part of the official PokerStars team, the company has been heavily promoting the videos. I would be willing to bet that Wade takes a position on Team SportStars in 2017.
PokerStars attempted its first official Festival in New Jersey late in 2016, and despite tremendous efforts to make it a stellar series of live tournaments, complete with their pros from all parts of the world in attendance, the series drew few players. This will change.
Not only did Lee Jones of PokerStars hint at another series for New Jersey in early 2017, the changes that are likely to be made with regard to marketing and timing will probably deliver better results. In addition, if companies like 888poker and partypoker want to stay relevant and are paying attention, they are probably working on similar events for 2017, each likely to attract more players and bigger prize pools.
If you weren’t at @PokerStarsNJ Festival @ResortsCasino 3 weeks ago, here’s what you missed. Don’t miss the next 1. https://t.co/xqhubU2MHR
— Lee Jones (@leehjones) November 17, 2016
The most common way to measure the number of women in poker is in live tournaments, and according to the best reports and estimates, the number has not changed much in the past decade. Less than 5% of the tournament fields are comprised of female players.
.@PakmanMMA @efropoker
WSOP: “Why aren’t there more women in poker?”
Female pro: “Well, maybe becau–”
Male pro: “STFU, no one asked”— Cate Hall (@catehall) September 23, 2016
This year, I predict a change. With an increase in the number of women sponsored by online poker sites around the world and more women than ever taking seats in cash games in poker rooms, especially in the US, the improvements will make an impact in tournament fields. Since the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas is the one series that produces statistics for male and female participation in the games, I anticipate the number of women in WSOP tournaments will exceed past years and rise to at least seven or eight percent overall.
Most Player of the Year award rankings include high roller tournaments, those with buy-ins exceeding $10K and some as high as $100K. Few players have the bankrolls to compete in those events, which limits the number of players who could become POY contenders to a select few. The vast majority of players will finally begin to speak up about the unfairness.
As requested 6 HR buyins added @PokerStarsLIVE Bahamas @steveodwyer @ikepoker @RealKidPoker @KevinHart4real @bp22 @GarryGates @JasonMercier pic.twitter.com/cZfeONeszk
— Neil Johnson (@NeilJPoker) January 7, 2017
I predict that POY rankings will likely remain the same for 2017, as the year has already begun, but changes will be in store for years to follow. High roller tournaments have taken on a life of their own of late, as high-stakes players are able to demand that casinos host massive buy-in tournaments to meet their needs. At the ARIA in Las Vegas, for example, player demand has increased the number of high roller events ten-fold in the past few years, and there are now several each month with buy-ins of $25K or $50K. Few players can compete, but all of them earn POY points. This trend will prompt changes to POY rankings going forward.
@steveodwyer how rich?
— Jason Lavallee (@constantcolorup) December 15, 2016
PokerStars’ parent company, Amaya, went through serious changes in 2016. Founder and CEO David Baazov tried to buy the company but then resigned due to insider trading charges, and merger talks took place with everyone from William Hill to GVC.
This year, I believe that Amaya will merge with GVC or 888. All companies are ripe for mergers in many respects, and their online poker worlds could join to make an insurmountable giant that dominates the industry. GVC owns bwin.party, and pushing partypoker together with PokerStars would leave all other competitors even further out in the cold as far as online poker is concerned. The same can be said for PokerStars partnering with 888 to create a virtual monopoly.
Agree with the predictions? Disagree vehemently? Have different predictions? Comment below or on our the Cardplayer Lifestyle Facebook page.
PokerStars is the undisputed king of online poker rooms with about three quarters of the global online poker share. 888poker is a distant second and the site that most everyone speaks of when discussing alternatives to the world’s largest poker room.
One room that has largely dropped out of the public poker consciousness is partypoker. Presently the 7th-largest online poker room according to PokerScout, partypoker just doesn’t resonate with recreationals the same as other sites.
Partypoker used to be the largest online poker site in the world but now struggles to stay relevant. That doesn’t have to be the case. There are several things the site can do to bring itself back into relevancy. Here’s a few things the company can do to bring itself back into the collective poker consciousness.
Online poker rooms are always looking for ways to entice players to download and play on their site. The problem is that many of these promotions don’t offer a lot of “added value” to the average recreational or pro player.
I think back to the early days of online poker when many rooms ran real no deposit casino promotions. They offered anywhere from $5 to $25 for a player to come to their room and play poker. No insane play-through requirements, no “free with deposit” deals, or anything that you normally see today.
This type of value-added promotion got players to come to new online poker sites by the thousands. Granted, the downside is that there were many people who came and played with the free money and never deposited, but there were also plenty who were bitten by the poker bug and continued to play.
Poker rooms don’t offer many value-added promotions anymore. Free tournament tickets and free cash game buy-ins are nice, but usually the added value isn’t that significant. Give players extra incentives to put their money on the site and ones that they can realize immediately rather than having to wager 10, 20 or 100 times their deposit.
For established players, give them value-added promotions that entice them to come to partypoker over PokerStars or other sites. Bigger guarantees, lower rake, or events that aren’t being run by every site.
One great example of such a promotion is the partypoker Millions promotion currently underway. This hybrid poker event starts out as an online event and then concludes as a live tournament in April. There is a £6 million guaranteed pool with £1 million to first. Imagine working your way from a £.01 satellite on partypoker to a £1 million payday. If that isn’t added value for a tournament, I don’t know what is.
Quick – without using Google or checking out partypoker’s website, name five of their ambassadors besides Mike Sexton and Tony Dunst.
Give up? Some of you may have named Sam Trickett or Boris Becker, but how many of you actually came up with five? If so, great job, but I’ll bet that most of you weren’t able to come up with more than three.
Personally, when I started thinking about this topic, I only came up with Sexton and Becker. I had forgotten about Trickett and Dunst. I also missed the memo that Jackie Glazier had been signed.
If you couldn’t name five sponsored pros, it’s not surprising seeing that the company does not hype their pros nearly the same way as PokerStars or 888poker does – unless you’re Mike Sexton or Tony Dunst.
When I went to the partypoker website, other than seeing promos featuring Boris Becker and Sam Trickett, I didn’t see anything pertaining to their other pros. I then went their blog section and saw the link for Team Pros.
Great! Now I will find a list of their pros and ambassadors, right? If you go by that, you’d think that the only pros on their roster are Sexton and Dunst. I didn’t find any information on other ambassadors until I then clicked their Poker for the People link and selected Meet the People.
There, I discovered that Beata Jambrik, Joao Simao, and Patrick Leonard have all signed as ambassadors in the last year. Other than that announcement, I couldn’t easily find anything on the site regarding these pros or any other pros that are sponsored by the site.
By contrast, if you head over to PokerStars or 888poker, you will easily find information on the massive group of pros they sponsor. It isn’t difficult to set up a profile page to highlight the sponsored players, so it seems a bit odd that partypoker hasn’t chosen to do so.
Update: After this article was initially published, they’ve put up a proper Team Pros page. Kudos!
To effectively compete with bigger sites, partypoker ought to try and snag more big name pros as ambassadors. I’m talking about players who one could reasonably group in the same league as pros representing the bigger sites.
Some names of elite pros that come to mind, with no disrespect to others of course, are:
Antonio Esfandiari, Dan Colman, Dan Smith, David Peters, and Fedor Holz (although Fedor is “retired” now…)
Adding big names like those to the likes of Trickett, Sexton, Dunst, Glazier, et al. presents a formidable Team Pro with considerable star power. That’s a lineup that prospective new recreational players on the site could rally behind; part of a brand that they’d go out of their way to support with their online poker dollars.
PokerStars has alienated many customers in the last year or so through changes in their policies and multiple rake hikes. When these types of changes happen, this presents an opportunity for competitors to try to move in and pick up customers upset with the world’s largest poker site.
Have any of you experienced what is known as a “gas war” between gas stations? This occurs when stores compete with each other to try to offer the lowest priced gas possible in order to gain new customers.
When Murphy’s opened in my town, we went through a gas war for the better part of three months. Murphy’s consistently had their gas as much as 10 cents per gallon cheaper than everyone else.
Most other gas stations eventually had to lower their prices, but things got really interesting when the local Kroger gas station decided to match them penny for penny and sometimes managed to get a cent or two cheaper.
This was great for customers as they enjoyed cheaper gas prices than were the average for the general area. We have one station in town that refused to participate in the gas war; they are now on the brink of going out of business.
Generally speaking, when other, larger sites make changes – like rake hikes – that are unpopular, partypoker could make headlines (and attract more players) by bucking the trend.
Challenging the “Big Boys” isn’t going to make partypoker a serious threat overnight, but steady challenges could force larger competitors to perhaps rethink certain future changes out of market share considerations.