Table of Content
In Barcelona, VSO Information author and Irish poker professional Dara O’Kearney attended the current EPT and met some outdated associates. [Image: Shutterstock.com]
Much less for extra
For 20 years earlier than I discovered poker, I labored in IT. That’s a broad umbrella for all kinds of various niches by which I noticed the identical sample again and again. Into each new area of interest piled an array of rivals. Over time, one emerged dominant to realize a close to monopoly. At that stage, the sport was over. With close to 100% market share in a stagnant market, the winners inevitably got here to 1 conclusion: the one technique to enhance earnings should you can’t enhance gross sales is to extend your costs and cut back your prices. Go away them wanting extra mutated into giving them much less for extra.
A few decade in the past, I had this dialog with a bunch of beasts that included Max Silver and Nick Abou Danger, each of whom labored in on-line poker websites earlier than turning professional. The final consensus was my gloom service provider’s take couldn’t apply to poker. On the time the status of the market chief, PokerStars, was at an all-time excessive. Their dealing with of the aftermath of Black Friday had justifiably gained them the gratitude and plaudits of the web poker neighborhood.
successfully stole from their most loyal clients
The final view of them because the white knights of on-line poker didn’t final. A few years later the Scheinberg founding household bought out to Amaya. Disastrous selections adopted doubtful practices as they axed their successful dwell manufacturers (European Poker Tour and a slew of native excursions) and successfully stole from their most loyal clients after they axed the Supernova Elite program late within the 12 months. They appeared to behave with the conceitedness of dictators, considering their market dominance made them invulnerable.
A dying large?
It didn’t make them invulnerable although. Whereas the likes of Social gathering scrambled to compete with renewed hope, the sport wasn’t over. Universally cherished good man Phil Galfond rushed off to create a would-be competitor. An actual challenger emerged from the East within the type of GG. It moved into the place of market chief, and while you discuss to GG folks now, as I did on the World Sequence of Poker (WSOP) this 12 months, they let you know they now not even see PokerStars as a risk. They see a dying large, flailing round making an attempt all the things to get well misplaced glories, and failing at each flip, hopelessly out of contact with each former and potential new clients. Whether or not they’re proper, solely time will inform.
One factor is evident although: Stars is actually making an attempt once more, and listening anew. The EPT and the regional excursions are again, an try to regain misplaced clients and to take heed to crucial voices similar to mine who tried to warn them previously and to leisure gamers they solicit for suggestions.
Dwell occasions had been one thing they at all times did higher than most if not all of their competitors. They rent the perfect sellers, the perfect ground employees, and for now their dwell occasions and VIP groups blow away these of GG. When it comes to buyer expertise if not status, EPTs simply beat the WSOP.
in Barcelona, the gamers had been those wooed
On the WSOP this 12 months, the GG focus appeared to shift from peculiar gamers and qualifiers who really play on the positioning to perceived celebrities and trade folks. They plied them with caviar at a gamers’ get together that almost all of their gamers didn’t even get an invitation to. In contrast, on the current EPT occasion in Barcelona, the gamers had been those wooed by ambassadors and dwell occasions employees, who left no stone unturned to attempt to higher the participant expertise.
Outdated associates
As a poker professional, you make associates along with your friends and rivals. You additionally make associates with the help employees round poker (sellers, ground employees, and so on), folks within the trade, and purely leisure gamers. These talked about within the final sentence are inclined to have an extended shelf life within the recreation than these within the previous one, so over time the ratio really shifts away from different execs.
Considered one of my oldest (in longevity phrases: I’m on no account suggesting she’s outdated) associates in poker is Rebecca McAdam. I’ve identified Rebecca just about all my poker life, from her early days as a Cardplayer reporter by her days because the Irish Open interviewer (she was there when my good pal Ian Simpson popped the query after successful the Irish Open) by her Full Tilt days to Stars. We even interviewed her on the first season of the Chip Race. We saved in touch however after we bumped into one another in Barcelona we realized, after a lot mutual head scratching, that we hadn’t sat down in individual to speak since 2014 Monte Carlo.
Bex had risen by the ranks at Stars and is now a critical participant within the trade. Considered one of her pet tasks is bettering the lot of her gender in poker, together with participation numbers. She’s behind a number of real initiatives to take action. All of them go properly past simply lobbing designer luggage on the final ladies standing in ‘girls’ occasions that includes 90%+ male participation.
The women occasion
Bex was in Barcelona to see the end result of 1 such occasion: a girls one desk freeroll with a 30k platinum cross as first prize. In a means, I used to be there for a similar purpose: I’d initially determined to skip Barca figuring it was too quickly after Vegas for me, however I modified my thoughts when one of many girls within the occasion requested me to educate and assist put together her for the occasion.
an eclectic mixture of profitable execs
The ladies invited to participate had been chosen for his or her efforts to encourage and encourage girls in poker. This included an eclectic mixture of profitable execs like Giada Fang, Aurelie Reard, and Lexi Sterner (the primary two of whom ended up proving that even in a fast-structured freeroll the cream tends to rise to the highest after they acquired headsup), and dedicated gifted and universally fashionable recs like Terry Hatchet and Chris Learn, who does Trojan work with the Ladies’s Poker Affiliation.
The occasion was initially deliberate for years in the past, however the pandemic prompted repeated postponements. I pointed this out to a number of individuals who expressed shock on the inclusion of 1 or two of the rivals, and the absence of some very apparent candidates like Vanessa Kade, Jen Shahade, Maria Konnikova, Alex O’Brien, Katie Swift, Katie Stone, and Pokerbunny. A few of these had been barely in poker when the nominations had been taken, some like Shahade and Konnikova had been disqualified by their affiliation with Stars, whereas others like Stone simply couldn’t make it there on the day.
Giada takes it residence
On the day I used to be thrilled to see Giada take it down. Not only is she a former guest on the Chip Race, however she additionally translated my ebook PKO Poker Strategy into Italian. In doing so, she impressed each my co-author Barry Carter and I together with her diligence and in-depth poker data. She even discovered just a few errors we and our workforce of knowledgeable reviewers had missed within the English unique! I hasten so as to add we after all went again and corrected the English. However sufficeth to say Giada is somebody who permits her onerous work and outcomes to talk for themselves, relatively than relying solely on the “woman in poker” factor.
You make your personal luck generally in poker
Some folks recommended afterward she’d run properly, and whereas that could be true (and he or she admitted it herself) she additionally performed flawlessly. You make your personal luck generally in poker, and by staying sturdy and disciplined within the early going when she was card lifeless, and successful the utmost together with her large palms after they got here, she was undoubtedly a deserving winner and will likely be a real risk within the 25k.
Who is aware of, she may even translate my newest ebook on ICM and closing desk technique into Italian as a part of her preparation.