How Twitter Swept The Poker Industry

On October 13, 2006, Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (known as the UIGEA)[1].  Although this law did not specifically prohibit playing poker for money online, it made it illegal for banks to transact with online gambling sites.  As a result, many players took their money offline, in fear that they would not be able to get it on a later date.  Also, many major poker sites discontinued business in the United States (there are still sites who maintain that what they are doing is not illegal under this law, and therefore still operate in America).

Because this was such a major blow to the poker industry, many sites tightened their purse strings, and became less willing to sponsor players.  As far as PokerStars or FullTilt was concerned, they had plenty of twenty-something drop-out-turned-poker players to draw aspiring players to their site.  From here, players needed to differentiate themselves, or consistently have fantastic results to become a sponsored professional player.

At the same time that this was happening, Twitter was beginning to gain more and more users.  To gain more exposure, professional pokers players, both signed and unsigned to online poker sites began Twittering their hearts out.  One major way Twitter was used was to provide updates when players were in a large buy-in tournament.  Traditionally, sites like pokernews.com provided live updates and chip counts for those following casino tournaments online.  Although these ventures were largely successful, it was, and still is, very difficult to provide updates for hundreds or even thousands of players simultaneously.  These sites committed many errors throughout the tournament. Not only that, but some players who have a fan following might not even be mentioned.

With the use of Twitter, players were able to individually give their own updates and chip counts.  They were also able to inform their fans of any interesting hands that were played.  This practice has grown, and now a vast amount of professional poker players have their own Twitter account.

Professional poker player and CEO of Pokerroad.com Joe Sebok was savvy enough to utilize the technology and the growing phenomenon that was Twitter to successfully garner himself a “sponsored pro” position as well as a “Media & Operations Consultant[2].” 

Sebok was able to strike a deal with Twitter to put him on the “Recommended Follow” page, which propelled his followship exponentially.  To give you an idea, one of the most popular professional poker players that has a Twitter feed, Daniel Negreanu currently has 67,588 followers[3], while Sebok currently has 1.1 million[4].  Sebok has nowhere near the amount of success or media exposure that Negreanu has had over the past 5 years, but with Twitter recommending everyone to follow him, he was able to skyrocket past every professional poker player.

At the same time, Sebok utilized Twitter in one of the most ingenious ways possible.  Sebok realized that every pro was “tweeting” their updates now, but it was cumbersome to follow all of the pros, along with all of the other people. Sebok created a page on his site called “Poker Road Nation.”  Because of Sebok’s influence, along with his step-father Barry Greenstein’s, influence he was able to convince marquee named pros to utilize the tool, along with the Poker Road community that he spent the last three years cultivating.

Poker Road Nation worked accordingly.  You would go to the site and select to “follow” Poker Road Nation, on the page, and it would immediately follow you.  Now, every time you tweeted, it would show up on the Poker Road nation page, along with everyone else who was participating.  Sebok was also wise enough to wait until the first day of the World Series of Poker to unveil the new technology, where poker’s hype is at its highest.

Sebok’s innovation with Twitter, not his poker prowess, was what got him the sponsorship at Ultimate Bet.  Now, many poker players are trying to follow suit, and for some, it’s working.  John Robert Bellande, parlayed his televised poker exposure into a stint on the reality show Survivor.  Now, Bellande chronicles his high stakes cash game gambling on his twitter feed, broadcasting his total bankroll[5] at the end of each tweet.

Bellande has built such a grass roots following on twitter that he now is a spokesman for “The Ivey Room,” a poker room at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas[6].  Poker players are constantly looking for ways to make an extra buck on the side, and by widening your exposure, it has proven to pay dividends for those that are successful.

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAFE_Port_Act

[2] http://www.pokerroad.com/blog/joesebok/98

[3] http://twitter.com/#!/RealKidPoker

[4] http://twitter.com/#!/joesebok

[5] Bankroll is the amount of money a player has allotted for playing purposes.

[6]Bellande speaks about it in this podcast interview -  http://www.pokerroad.com/radio/prr/323

The Online Poker Community

One phenomenon that online poker engendered is the online poker community.  While it is true that poker communities such as "rec.gambling.poker" were present before online poker proliferated, players became much more involved in strategic discussions online once online poker became widespread.

This blogger postualates that this occurred for the following reasons. First, the Internet became an avenue for players to access all things poker.  Many poker magazines established themselves online to capitalize on the growing popularity.  This meant that players not only had places to play online, but they also had a place to read strategic articles.  Eventually, these publications came out with live tournament reporting, podcast, user forums, and other various forms of what is now called "pokertainment," a term coined by Pokerroad.com's CEO and professional poker player, Joe Sebok.

Once user forums became available an widely used, members could connect with other poker enthusiasts from across the globe.

Currently, the largest poker community is twoplustwo.com.  Twoplustwo forums are divided over a plethora of subjects, ranging from poker strategy and gossip, to general lifestyle and joke forums.  This community is filled with professional poker players, some who've become psuedo celebrities, who routinely post strategic opinions and answer questions about rumors that have sprung up.

Twoplustwo's biggest accomplishment as a community was uncovering a cheating scandal that was happening at a major online poker site, UltimateBet.com.  Through a series of data analyses and a few missteps from the site, players gradually came to the (now proven) conclusion that there were a handful of people who had "super user" capabilities, meaning they were able to see every player's cards throughout the hand, giving them an insurmountable edge.  Some players lost millions of dollars. Players were eventually refunded, however those players still speculate they were not refunded the full amount.

You can view the thread in its entirety here:    http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/superusers-silence-how-ultimatebet-let-players-get-cheated-millions-208114/

In closing, the Internet has become a place for poker players to interact internationally. Often, playing poker is seen as a vice or charachter flaw.  The Internet gave poker players a place interact with others who shared the same interest, besides brick & mortar casinos.  Because of this, these communities flourished and even became powerful enough to expose a corporate scandal.

Online Poker, The Sponsored Pro, and Poker News

One of the main factors that caused interest in poker to escalate so quickly was the way online poker sites permeated the market with advertisements and incentives to play.  Online poker sites such as Party Poker, Poker Stars, Full Tilt, and Ultimate Bet surrounded the market through many different mediums.  

Now that televised poker was seeing its viewer ratings increase, the commercial advertisements became more and more valuable.  To capitalize on a massive amount of viewers who fit the demographic they were aiming towards, online poker sites began placing 30 second to 60 second commercials promoting their play money, or “dot net” sites.  Because of current legislation, the online poker sites could not advertise their “dot com” sites, which allowed players to gamble for real money.  

By 2005, poker broadcasts had saturated cable programming, and Party Poker’s “Ooooh Party Poker” commercial campaign was becoming ubiquitous to all poker players[1].

Also, to capitalize on the television coverage, online poker sites began to sponsor professional poker players to represent their site. Poker sites signed the players who had the most television coverage, and had the best tournament results at the time, to add credibility to their site.  Some sites signed multi-year sponsorship deals, while other might have just paid for a player’s entry fee to represent the site for that specific tournament. 

For example, Phil Ivey is a professional player who is sponsored by Full Tilt.  He has signed a multi-year deal with the company, and may have some stake in the company as well.  With this deal, every time Phil plays poker on television, he wears a Full Tilt Poker patch on his shirt, and will most likely wear a Full Tilt hat.  Also, he is obligated to exclusively play at Full Tilt poker when he plays online. 

On the other hand, an amateur player in the World Series of Poker Main Event, who has randomly been selected to be on the “featured table” would most likely strike a single-event sponsorship.  Even though the player is relatively unknown, poker sites believe that having them wear patches is important to show its presence in the industry.  A possible arrangement for this  kind of agreement might have the player get the site to pay for the $10,000 buy-in, with a stipulation to pay more  money if he makes it back onto TV on a later day.

The term for striking such single-day or single-tournament deals is known as “patching up.”

Also, players who qualify from a certain site might have to wear the site’s paraphernalia for the tournament to be able to have their flight and hotel expenses paid for by the site.  Typically, when a player wins a seat to the Main Event from an online site, they win a sum of around $12,000, $2,000 more than the actual buy-in itself.  These funds are in place to make sure the player has spending money and money to stay in the hotel long enough if they make it into the further days of the tournament.  The Main Event this year lasted 12 days, and the final nine players are awaiting November 9^th to play out the remaining 13^th day[2].

Also, the poker media is fueled by sponsorships and advertisements from these online sites.  For example, the website pokernews.com , which has exclusive rights to bring live updates of the World Series of Poker to online users, has a sponsorship deal with the online poker site Poker Stars.  In effect, Poker News will give priority to hands played by Poker Stars sponsored pros, and litter the chip count updates with Poker Stars pros, rather than other interesting players that the online fan might be interested in.

Similarly, Poker Stars has sponsored poker-news podcasts that are downloaded and listened to by listeners.  For example, twoplustwo.com, a major poker community website, responsible for much of the development of the game, and will be talked about in a later blog, has a two-hour podcast about the goings on of the poker community.  In every podcast, they make sure to interview a Poker Stars public relations representative to make sure they recap any new developments on the site that players might be interested in hearing[3].

Online poker has certainly influenced the course that the game has taken.  It could be considered the greatest influences.  Next week, we will delve into the community that has developed on the internet, and the impact they have had on the game as a grassroots movement.

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[1] An example of Party Poker’s commercial campaign can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLwNNF9hQJw&feature=related

[2] http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2010-wsop/main-event/

[3] Two Plus Two Poker Cast - http://pokercast.twoplustwo.com/

Online Poker: A New Way to Play the Game

If we are to consider video games as a media platform, it is this blogger’s opinion that we must also include online poker as a form of media.  Whether we are to lump this and video games in the same category is another story, although the two have many similar qualities, especially internet-enable video games.

Online poker’s beginnings can be traced back to somewhere in the 1990’s, and this new medium helped set in motion a change in the game of poker, increasing its popularity exponentially.  Going from brick & mortar casinos to the digital felt impacted the game for a few reasons.

First, it allowed people a chance to learn the game, for free, without embarrassment. Most poker sites have two different platforms:  one with play money, and one for real money.  Those who had interest in playing poker, but never had friends or family who played, no longer had to drive to a casino and play for real money.  Instead, they could easily log on to their favorite poker website and learn to play the game.  Many websites have tutorials on how to play.  Even if you make a foolish play, there is no one physically there to chastise you for playing the way you did.   However, the implementation of the “chat box” allowed players to communicate with one another, and led to some players “flaming[1]” other players for their perceived poor play.

Second, online poker, in the beginning, gave players the opportunity to satellite their way into major poker tournaments, as discussed in a previous blog.  Casinos, due to the fact that they cannot make money operating small-buy in satellite tournaments, did not offer satellite tournaments for nominal costs.  Although they usually run satellite tournaments, they are often single table tournaments for one-tenth of the buy in.  Many major poker tournament buy ins are in the area of $10,000, meaning the average satellite buy-in ranges from $500-$1,000, a hefty amount of money for the amateur poker player to spend for their chance to play in a big tournament.

However, online poker, because they can run many tables at once without having to take into consideration dealer salaries or space to fit actual tables, were able to run these satellites over many tables.  This meant that players could spend just a fraction of the cost they would have to pay at a casino for a chance to win their way into a tournament.  Chris Moneymaker, the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, was able to satellite into the tournament with just $40, and he eventually turned that $40 into $2,500,000.[2]

Third, it gave people under the age of 21, but over the age of 18 a place to play poker for real money.  For the most part, casinos require anyone who plays to be over the age of 21, so they can feasibly serve alcoholic beverages to their patrons.  However, to play online poker, you simply need to be of the legal age to gamble, which, in many states, is 18[3], and have a credit card to deposit money.

On January 1, 1998, Planet Poker became the first site to offer online poker games for real money.  Although they certainly did not have the number of players that are currently playing today, it was the first step toward the phenomenon that it is today.  Another major element that Planet Poker brought to the table was the advent of the “sponsored professional player.”  Planet Poker brought on Mike Caro, a reputable professional player who brought credence to the website.  While there Caro also developed the first security platform, to give players the assurance that they were not being colluded against or cheated in any other way[4].

To have a website sponsor a poker player is a goal for any player aspiring to play the game professionally, especially the tournament poker player.  Playing tournament poker for a living means that at sometimes, you may not win money for long streaks at a time, due to the variance of the game.  However, a player may win large sums of money at one time, making up for the buy-ins from the other tournaments that they did not show a profit.  If an online poker website sponsors you, however, they may pay for your buy-in and hotel fees, allowing you to keep afloat when you “run bad,” a term that means having bad luck.

The mere fact that these online poker websites sponsored players kept unsponsored players coming back in hopes that they may win a few tournaments or get enough televised coverage that t website might sponsor them in the future.  This also led to more antics at the poker table during televised poker tournaments.  Players will now act in a more dramatic fashion so that they gain enough televised coverage to entice websites to sponsor them.

Building on Planet Poker, a new wave of online poker sites burst onto the scene to cash in on this opportunity that began to present itself.  Part two of this blog will pick up from here and focus on how these websites integrated themselves into the televised coverage of online poker, created celebrities, and navigated their way through a debilitating law change that left the online poker landscape debilitated.

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[1] Flaming is an online term for criticizing or berating someone.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Moneymaker

[3] http://www.worldcasinodirectory.com/gambling_age_chart.htm

[4] http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/windy-city-rounder/2010/04/history-of-online-poker-part-i-the-primer.html

A Perfect Storm. Chris Moneymaker, and the Poker Boom

              With the invention and the adoption of the hole-cam, a perfect storm for poker was brewing.  This invention allowed viewers access into poker games like they had never seen before.   A few years prior to this, the critically acclaimed movie “Rounders” gave a new perspective on the game of poker.  Without damaging the mystique of poker, media had, from several different venues, piqued America’s interest.  Poker had gained so much interest that in 2003, ESPN agreed to air the World Series of Poker Main Event, a $10,000 buy-in poker tournament over the course of eight segments. 

              Concurrently, internet poker had gained popularity with casual players, and for the first time ever, players could satellite into the World Series of Poker Main Event, via online poker sites.  To satellite into a poker tournament means to play a smaller buy-in tournament, and the winner of the tournament would receive an entry into a bigger buy-in tournament[1].  What happened next, no one could have ever predicted, nor could they have written a better script for the 2003 World Series Main Event.

                

             Chris Moneymaker, an aptly named amateur poker player was able to satellite into the Main Event from just a $40 buy-in.  Moneymaker was an accountant from Tennesee, who, when winning his satellite, tried to cash in the seat for its actual value, but was convinced to fly to Las Vegas and play in the tournament[2].  After eight grueling days, he bested many of the games top professional players, along with the other 838 players who entered the tournament, to win $2.5 million[3]. 

                Because of the prior technological advances that convinced ESPN to cover the event in-depth in eight different segments, they were able to craft emotional storylines leading up to the final table of the event.  Moneymaker was the focal point of the cast.  It was the favorite American story, underdog takes on the odds on favorites, and bests them all, including Sammy Farha.  Farha, who placed second in the tournament that year, was a well-dressed, smooth-talking, cigar-chewing, high-stakes poker player.  He was the quintessential poker player.  Moneymaker was undeterred, and ended up out maneuvering Farha in a well depicted telecast that captured the attention of America.

                The poker-boom was built off of this moment.  Poker had officially made its move to “mainstream,” and everyone wanted to take their shot at taking their $40, and turning it into millions.  Poker had now gone from smoke-filled casinos to the computer screen.  Websites that allowed players to play poker for real money were flowing in, and so began the poker boom.  The next year, Main Event entrants went from 839, to 2,576, mainly from online poker sites that ran satellite tournaments around the clock, months before the event. 

              Online poker was the main avenue for the poker-boom, and it is where this blog will continue next week. 

               

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[1]Source: http://poker.about.com/od/pokerglossary/g/Satellite.htm For example, if a player wanted to play in the World Series Main Event, and only had $1,000, he could play in a 10-man tournament, where the buy-in is $1,000.  The winner of that 10-man tournament would receive a $10,000 buy-in to the Main Event, rather than just $10,000.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Moneymaker

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Series_of_Poker

Week 2: Revolutionizing Televised Poker: The Hole Cam

Acknowledgements:  A big thank you to Gary Wise, ESPN writer, Bluff Magazine writer, and owner of Wise Hand Poker for

The game of poker, specifically the game of No-Limit Texas hold em’ has seen exponential gains in popularity and participation over the last decade.  How did the game become so large, so fast? 

It is the contention of this blogger that the game of no-limit Texas hold em’ became so large due to the improved, televised media coverage it received.  Before the first decade of the 21^st century, any televised poker equivocated to the filming of a group of people playing an obscure game with lack-luster commentary.  This type of broadcast made for confusing, boring television, seemingly broadcast at an audience with esoteric knowledge, and refusing to give novice viewers a chance to catch on.

After the twenty first century, however, the technological improvement of the “hole cam” coupled with the adoption of professional commentators brought about a broadcast that captured the attention of all users, novice to professional card players.

The “hole cam” is a device that was invented by a gentleman named Henry Orenstein, which allows you to view the cards of all the players in a hand[1].  “His basic logic was, as much as it was cool to watch all this money being thrown around the screen, you can’t really follow all the action as it was playing out,” Gary Wise, columnist at ESPN said in an interview.  With this technology, users were transported from watching nine strangers sitting silently at a poker table, to being able to put themselves in the thick of the action, viewing every exciting bluff, raise, and all-in play[2]. 

Not only did the “hole cam” allow audiences a more interactive experience, but it also opened the door for improvement in poker commentating.  Analysts were no longer spending their time speculating at what the player might be holding in this situation, but rather commentating on why the player was making the play with the cards they held.

These elements coupled together allowed producers to create a broadcast applicable to mainstream viewers, which lent it to being picked up by major broadcasting stations. 

One of the earliest adopters of this technology was the World Poker Tour.  In 2002, the World poker tour signed an agreement with the Travel Channel.  One of poker’s biggest ambassadors, Mike Sexton, along with Steve Lipscomb, the World Poker Tour founder approached Lyle Berman[3], a poker player who is also a business executive to help fund the show, so they would have the budget they needed to produce a high quality broadcast, according to Mr. Wise. 

After Lyle agreed, they were able to license the show to the Travel Channel.  The Travel Channel aired one of the first American productions of a poker tournament that included the use of hole cams, along with the professional commentating of Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten. 

The new broadcast style led to immediate success of the first televised “season” of the World Poker Tour.  It could be argued, that the World Poker Tour’s success might have led to ESPN licensing the World Series of Poker for eight episodes of coverage the next year in 2003, which is where this blog will pick up next week.

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hole_cam

[2] A bluff is when a player bets with a hand that has no hope to win.  Being “all-in” means betting all of the chips you have in-front of you, and is deemed to be the most exciting play”

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyle_Berman

Week 1: An Introduction

                Poker has been somewhat of an interesting phenomenon the past few decades.  Before the twenty-first century, and well before that, poker was deemed as a game for cheats and cardsharps.  Novice players, also known as “fish” would attempt to play with the seasoned professionals, and in a short time, they would be left with only their complimentary drink and a story to tell.  Fast-forward to present day.  No-Limit Texas Hold em’[1], a variation of poker is a house-hold game. Four months ago, the 41^st World Series of Poker began, showcasing 57 different events[2]. According to PokerNews.com, the events attracted over 70,000 players in total, contributing $180 million in the overall prize pool.[3]  Just forty years ago, six gentlemen sat down, ponied up $10,000 of their own money and played in the first ever World Series of Poker[4].  The top prize that year:  $30,000

                The kind of exponential growth the game of poker underwent poses the question, just how did this happen?  The game of poker has been around for hundreds of years.   American historical figures such as Mark Twain have written about playing the game[5].  So what happened this decade that allowed the game to spread like wildfire?

                This blogger believes reason the game of poker has become such a widespread phenomenon is due to the innovative method in which media has chosen to cover it.  Specifically, this blog will examine media coverage of tournament poker, leaving some exceptions for what are called “cash games”.  Tournament poker can be defined as a game where people “buy-in” for a predetermined amount of money.  Once players “buy-in” they are given an equal amount of tournament chips as every other person who has bought in for the tournament.  Once the tournament has begun, it does not stop until one player has collected all of the tournament chips.  The winner of the tournament collects the prize pool.  When there is a large amount of players, more than first place receives money. 

Cash game poker can be defined as a perpetual game of poker, where players are free to come and go as they please, and it is played for real dollars.  For example, if you were playing in a cash game with a stakes of $1/$2, you could put $60-$300 down on the table and play at the agreed stakes.  You may play as many hands as you desire and leave whenever you choose. 

Although there are media outlets that cover cash games, the reason for poker’s rising popularity comes from tournament poker, and media’s coverage of it.

Referenced previously in this blog, the World Series of Poker is the world’s largest poker tournament series, held annually in Las Vegas.  It is considered the bell-weather for the livelihood of the poker economy.  If total entries are up, the general consensus is that the poker economy is rising, but if the total entries are down, one must worry about the game’s fate.

Similarly, the World Series of Poker has been given much credit for creating what is called the first “poker boom,” in 2003, where the amount of entries to the “Main Event” a $10,000 buy-in tournament, boasting the year’s largest prize pool, spiked from 839 to 2,576 in 2004[6]. 

How did this event go from six players in 1971, boasting a first prize of $30,000 to 8,773 paying $12,000,000 to the eventual winner in 2008?

This blog will examine the impact of the various forms of media coverage of tournament poker, and how its innovations brought the game from obscurity to mainstream.

Next week, this blog will examine the impact televised poker has had on the industry of tournament poker.  This blog will focus on the innovation of Henry Orenstein’s “hole-cam,” which allows viewers to see players’ cards while the hand is being played out. 

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[1] No Limit Texas Hold Em’ is by far the most popular game currently running.  It is the game of choice for most recreational players, and is the game that decides the world champion of the World Series of Poker in the “Main Event.”

[2] http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/

[3] http://www.pokernews.com/news/2010/09/wsop-vs-wcoop-part-1-events-and-prize-pools-8854.htm

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Series_of_Poker

[5] http://www.cardplayer.com/cardplayer-magazines/65649-linda-johnson-19-24/articles/16384-poker-the-story-of-america-39-s-national-pastime

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Series_of_Poker