I'm writing this as FTOPS VII Event #4 is about to begin. It's PLHE and, of course, I've decided at the last minute to enter. My results so far look depressingly like the prevous FTOPSes, but everything looks a little...
National Heads-Up Poker Championship players announced
Sixty-three of 64 players in NBC’s fourth National Heads-Up Poker Championship have been confirmed for the event, according to pokerpages.com. The event begins Feb. 29 at Caesars Palace in Lax Vegas and features a first prize of half a million dollars. The single-elimination tournament starts with ��...full article
The single-elimination tournament starts with 64 players who advance via single elimination matches to the best-0f-three final on March 2.
All three former champions will be in the field, according to the Web site:
All three former NHPC winners will participate in this year’s event. Paul Wasicka was crowned champion of the 2007 NHPC, outlasting Chad Brown. Ted Forrest was the trophy winner in 2006, and Phil Hellmuth won the inaugural NHUPC in 2005. Both Hellmuth and Forrest captured their titles after outlasting 2000 WSOP Main Event Champion Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson.
2003 WSOP champion Chris Moneymaker has also confirmed that he will participate.
Players will also include the three 2007 Players of the Year as awarded by major poker publications. They are J.C. Tran (ALL IN), Bill Edler (Bluff) and David “The Dragon” Pham (Card Player).
Celebrities like Jason Alexander and Don Cheadle will also play in the field. Here are 63 of the 64 players, with an online qualifier to be determined:
1. Alexander, Jason
2. Antonius, Patrik
3. Bellande, Jean-Robert
4. Benyamine, David
5. Bloch, Andy
6. Brown, Chad
7. Brunson, Doyle
8. Brunson, Todd
9. Chan, Johnny
10. Cheadle, Don
11. Clements, Scott
12. Cloutier, T.J.
13. Cunningham, Allen
14. Deeb, Freddy
15. Duke, Annie
16. Dwan, Tom
17. Edler, Bill
18. Elezra, Eli
19. Elizabeth, Shannon
20. Esfandiari, Antonio
21. Farha, Sam
22. Ferguson, Chris
23. Fischman, Scott
24. Forrest, Ted
25. Gold, Jamie
26. Gowen, Clonie
27. Greenstein, Barry
28. Grizzle, Sam
29. Hachem, Joe
30. Hansen, Gus
31. Harman, Jennifer
32. Hellmuth, Phil
33. Hershiser, Orel
34. Ivey, Phil
35. Juanda, John
36. Kaplan, Gabe
37. Kelly, Tom(Caesars Palace qualifier)
38. Laak, Phil
39. Lederer, Howard
40. Lindgren, Erick
41. Little, Jonathan
42. Matusow, Mike
43. Moneymaker, Chris
44. Mizrachi, Michael
45. Negreanu, Daniel
46. Nguyen, Scotty
47. Nikzad, Hooman (Caesars Palace qualifier)
48. online qualifier (to be determined)
49. Pham, David
50. Raymer, Greg
51. Rousso, Vanessa
52. Schneider, Tom
53. Schreiber, Daniel
54. Seed, Huck
55. Seidel, Erik
56. Singer, David
57. Smith, Gavin
58. Tilly, Jennifer
59. Townsend, Brian
60. Tran, J.C.
61. Tran, Kenny
62. Wasicka, Paul
63. Williams, David
64. Yang, Jerry
The event will be broadcast on NBC starting on April 13
Doyle Brunson backs Obama for president
According to a blog post by Doyle Brunson in his blog over at PokerRoad, the poker legend is throwing his support behind Barack Obama. Excerpt: During this poker cash game lull, I am on this race for President like stupid is on Britney Spears. I ��...full article
During this poker cash game lull, I am on this race for President like stupid is on Britney Spears. I have come to the conclusion that poker players have to support Obama. We can’t possibly let McCain be our President because he supports most of George W. Bush’s views. Hillary has lots of experience but I don’t think she is ready to lead our nation. Imagine her trying to talk to the leaders of the Islamic world? I wish we could have her husband back, but we can’t. Jennifer Harman and I have emailed Obama and asked what his position is on internet gaming. Hopefully we will get a response from his camp.
Credit to Wicked Chops for finding the post first.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
Speculation continues regarding the identity of seda1
Seda1, the mysterious online poker player who has been battling it out with Phil Ivey in the largest cash games online lately at Full Tilt Poker, has finally been identified - at least that’s the speculation coming out of Poker King and 2+2 recently. PK ran ��...full article
PK ran a story yesterday based largely on a 2+2 thread that identified seda1 as Shawn Sedaghat. Excerpt:
It seems as though the true identity of “seda1″ is likely to be Shawn Sedaghat.
Sedaghat is a wealthy businessman who has been known to play in some high-stakes poker games. He reportedly took millions of dollars off of Ron Meyer, long-time head of Universal Studios, according to this article.
Sedaghat won $29,925 at the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event, which is the only cash that I can find to his name.
Sedaghat was formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer of Seda Specialty Packaging until the company was purchased by CCL Industries, Inc. on June 16, 1997. SEC Document here
2+2 thread here.
The Poker Boom Part 6: The future
The state of online poker
If the UIGEA was doomsday for online poker, today's market shows there is indeed life after death. The total number of real-money players at peak times today, according to PokerListings.com's MarketPulse, tops out at around 70,000. In late 2005 you could find that many players on Party Poker alone, but given the shifts in the market since 2006 the traffic is healthy and only continues to grow each day.
Nearly one-third of today's players (32%) play at PokerStars, which has supplanted Party Poker as market leader. On average, twice as many players play at PokerStars as at any other online poker room. It's worth noting that PokerStars is one of the few privately owned companies in the business; because it didn't have to answer to shareholders, it never left the U.S. market.
Full Tilt Poker, another privately held company that never left the U.S. market, continues to do solid business with about 15% market share. Party Poker's traffic might have dropped off after leaving the U.S., but it still holds steady in third place, with a market share of 12%. At peak times, Party sometimes surpasses Full Tilt's player count, showing its resilience in the new world order of online poker.
Worldwide markets
Much as it was during the immediate aftermath of the UIGEA, the growth of foreign markets will be key to sustaining poker's profitability. Just how much those markets can be tapped will depend on how national governments respond when the poker rooms come knocking.
Germany, for instance, recently passed a law banning all forms of Web-based gambling within its borders, despite warnings from a German court that such a ban would be nearly impossible to enforce. The German government has authorized Internet service providers to block access to sites that allow betting.
Fellow European Union member France has historically banned the licensing of online gaming companies. The French government has also authorized U.S.-style arrests of foreign nationals who run online gaming companies, such as Petter Nylander of Unibet Group.
Germany and France made their moves against online gaming in order to protect state-run monopolies on gambling. If online poker grows popular in other countries or regions where similar monopolies exist, we can expect to see those governments follow suit.
The outlook for online poker in such markets isn't all dark, though. The EU has been working to open up competition among its member states in the online gaming market. If it were to successfully sue a member nation over anti-competitive online gaming laws, an important worldwide precedent could be set.
Then there is the prospect of more governments getting in on the action themselves. Austria recently opened its state-run online poker room, joining Sweden as the only countries in the world to operate such businesses. Finland's culture and sport minister recently proposed a similar venture, pointing to the profits made by online gaming operators as justification. The EU has publicly pondered going after such state-sponsored online poker rooms, so their future is unclear at this time.
The U.S. market
The sheer size of the U.S. online poker market, if it wasn't already apparent, was revealed immediately after passage of the UIGEA, when so many poker rooms pulled out and the traffic dried up. Even today, U.S.-facing rooms tend to have the most traffic despite the damage dealt by the U.S. government.
With such a huge amount of money remaining untaxed and the federal government's budget in the red, it comes as no surprise that the idea of regulating and taxing online gambling within the U.S. has slowly become more popular.
Several bills with varying approaches to online gambling have been proposed in Congress. Chief among them is the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act, proposed by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). IGREA would repeal the UIGEA and, as its name suggests, implement a regulatory scheme for all forms of online gambling. Other bills seek to protect skill games, to tax online poker and to commission a government study of online gambling.
The last option opens up some interesting possibilities. The American Gaming Association, which represents major players in the casino industry such as Harrah's Entertainment and MGM Mirage, has called for such a study. If the results of a government study such as the one proposed by the AGA were positive, the door could be opened for major American casino companies to jump into the online gaming market - especially if either of the current Democratic presidential candidates were to win the presidency. (Both have come out in favor of the AGA's proposed study.)
For now, the U.S. online poker market remains the domain of the hardcore poker player. The glory days of the early-2000s Party Poker fishbowl might never return, but a shift in the rules of the game - especially given the ever-changing nature of American politics - doesn't seem far away.
Online tournament series
As popular as live tournament series like the WSOP are, the online equivalents are gaining ground. And why not? With no travel costs, more affordable buy-ins, dirt-cheap satellites and the same variety of games as are available live, series like FTOPS and WCOOP are the perfect alternative to major live tournaments.
- FTOPS
The seventh edition of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) that has taken place over the last 18 months just wrapped up. If the results are anything to go by, the series is more popular than ever.
The first FTOPS, held in August 2006, featured eight tournaments and awarded a little under $2 million. By contrast, FTOPS VII featured 20 events and the first six of them alone awarded over $3.7 million in prize money.
- WCOOP
The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) comes only once a year, but when it does it brings the noise.
The 2007 installment of the oldest continuing poker series online drew an amazing 40,280 players for its 23 events and handed out over $24 million in cash. Even the lowest first-prize payout in 2007 - $171,400 in the Pot-Limit Five-Card Draw event - was nearly triple that of the 2002 WCOOP main event top prize. The future only looks to get brighter for the WCOOP.
Satellites for live events
Online poker series might be growing in popularity, but the big money is still in major live tournaments held around the world.
Cheap satellites have been a big boost to the popularity of the EPT in its four seasons, and they fueled much of the participation in the first season of the APPT as well. Having so many satellite qualifiers from overseas helped bolster the fields of the new Asian events to respectable levels, encouraging locals to pick up the game and qualify for the next year's installment.
As more live tournaments spring up around the world, their promoters and host casinos will be looking to fill up as many seats as possible with players from outside the local area. Expect to see the major online rooms come on board to sponsor tournaments wherever possible, especially in newer markets, and offer cheap satellites to entice players with the dream of hitting a big score.
Conclusion
Online poker has been on a tumultuous ride, going from cult pastime to worldwide cultural phenomenon to conservative media target in the space of just a few years. With the industry still in its infancy and political forces undecided on how to deal with it, its future is murky to say the least.
What does appear sure is that no matter the method outside forces choose to use in dealing with it, poker's popularity in all forms remains robust in 2008. Tournament fields around the world continue to grow, new tournaments crowd the schedule and new players and markets emerge every day.
Whatever the course poker takes in the future, PokerListings.com will be here to deliver the news.
Visit PokerListings.com
Bill to examine intra-state online poker in California introduced
An article published today in Capitol Weekly highlighted an interesting bill, introduced to the California Legislature by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, that aims to study the possibility of creating online poker rooms that would operate exclusively within California. The bill would represent a fairly new ��...full article
The bill would represent a fairly new approach to legalizing and regulating online poker in the United States. Excerpt from the CW article:
The Poker Boom Part 5: The global game
In Part 4 of this series we looked at the 2006 backlash against online gambling by U.S. government authorities and how online poker was swept up with online casinos in the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
Coupled with a sudden crackdown by the U.S. authorities on foreign executives of online casino companies, the UIGEA made for a chilly atmosphere in the United States and artificially shifted the bulk of the online poker industry to other markets overnight.
The European market immediately became much more important to the online poker industry, while other smaller markets around the world became worth pursuing as well. These shifts would alter the character of the online game significantly and have an effect on high-stakes live tournament poker.
The online market turns elsewhere
In the same September 2006 statement in which it announced it was leaving the U.S. market until further notice, online poker market leader PartyGaming warned shareholders that its earnings would fall significantly short of projected figures announced before passage of the UIGEA. Rather than panic in its new surroundings, though, Party turned its attention to new player sign-ups in other markets.
Attracting players from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the geographic zone where 67% of its daily revenue was generated, became a major focus for Party in late 2006.
To a lesser extent it also focused on new sign-ups in Canada, Latin America and South America, which generated about 27% of the daily take. The company's overall revenue was only one-third of its pre-UIGEA total, but new sign-ups were expected to make up the difference over time.
In a mid-December conference call, PartyGaming CEO Mitch Garber made it clear his company had successfully switched gears. "PartyGaming is no longer a poker-led, U.S.-dependent and one language gaming operator," said Garber. "We are rapidly becoming a multi-lingual and multi-currency non-U.S. company."
#img: dario-minieri_17078.jpg: left: Poker sites find new faces for international markets.#
Even the online poker rooms that decided to stick with the U.S. market branched out to a certain degree by increasing their presence overseas. The four European players known as the Hendon Mob had already signed on with Full Tilt in May 2006, and their popularity helped the online room increase its player base in the United Kingdom and Europe.
PokerStars, meanwhile, began reaching out to the rest of the world to recruit new members for Team PokerStars. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Luca Pagano, Dario Minieri, Andre Akkari and Katja Thater were just a few of the international players who signed on to promote the popular poker room in their home countries and abroad, leading to an increased player base in Europe and South America.
International tournament poker
The changing makeup of the online poker player base in 2007 was reflected in the expansion of live poker tournament throughout the world. New tours began, old tours continued to grow, and a few independent tournaments made their mark as well.
Asia
Asia's huge population and affinity for gambling made it a target for online poker room expansion long before the UIGEA was ever passed. Once the law was in place, however, the major rooms had even more reason to turn their attention toward the East.
India held its first tournament, the independent Asian Poker Classic, in Goa over the first week of March 2007. The $5,000 event drew 143 players in from around the world with a guaranteed $1 million prize pool. The overlay was a boon to Denmark's Carl Hostrup, who took home $320,000 for first place. The event proved a big enough success that it is scheduled to go off again in March 2008.
#img: great-wall-of-china_11599.jpg: right: The Asian market begins to open up.#
In August 2007, PokerStars launched the first season of the Asia Pacific tour (APPT) with a $2,350 event at the Hyatt Hotel in Manila, Philippines, that drew a strong field of 255 players. The APPT brought tournament poker to South Korea for the first time in September, and then held the historic first-ever poker tournament in China when it stopped in Macau. England's Dinh Le topped the 352-player field there and won $222,640.
The APPT season wrapped up after only four tournaments, but all the events proved popular and it's likely the tour will return for a second run in 2008.
Australia
Full Tilt Poker came on board as a major sponsor for the Aussie Millions in 2007, giving the already-popular January event an immediate boost in prestige. Attendance skyrocketed, with over 700 players - 300 more than had come out in 2006 - turning up for the main event in Melbourne.
#img: gus-hansen_4411.jpg: left: The Great Dane makes a good showing for Full Tilt Poker at the Aussie Millions.#
Along with Full Tilt's sponsorship came American and European satellite winners and worldwide television coverage on Fox Sports Net. Full Tilt may have walked away the biggest winner of all, at least in terms of public relations, when its own Gus Hansen took home the main event championship.
The Aussie Millions wasn't the only big game in town in 2007. The PokerStars-sponsored APPT also held its Grand Final in Australia.
The $6,300 AUD buy-in was higher than the other APPT stops, but APPT Sydney still drew the largest field of the season with 561 players. Australia's own Grant Levy took home the championship and the $1 million AUD prize.
Europe
In addition to its new tour in Asia, PokerStars continued to sponsor the European Poker Tour, which had grown in both popularity and prestige since its launch in 2005.
The tour's third season, which began just before passage of the UIGEA, saw attendance figures and prize pools climb steadily upward, culminating in the Season 3 Grand Final held in Monte Carlo.
#img: gangsta_12080.jpg: right: Get your euros here!#
An incredible field of 706 players put up €10,000 each for a shot at the biggest payday in European poker history. In the end, the €1,825,010 ($2,434,061) prize went to American professional player Gavin Griffin.
The fourth season of the EPT began in late 2007 and brought most of the tour's buy-ins up to at least the same level as their WPT counterparts. Attendance stayed strong even with the higher buy-ins, thanks to cheap online satellites and the game's continued popularity throughout Europe.
The European tournament calendar for 2007 had over 250 festivals scheduled, with many of them sponsored by the likes of PartyPoker, 888.com and other online poker rooms. Made-for-television competitions like the Poker Million VI and Late Night Poker remained popular in Europe as well.
WSOP goes international
The lure of a gold WSOP bracelet has always attracted the best poker players from around the world. In 2007, more of those players than ever before made an impact in Las Vegas.
Throughout the 2007 preliminary events, a total of 10 players from seven nations outside the U.S. won bracelets. Ciaran O'Leary and Alan Smurfit of Ireland; Alexander Kravchenko of Russia; Jason Warner, Robert Cheung and Lukasz Dumanski of Canada; Katja Thater of Germany; Jeffrey Lisandro of Australia; Rafi Amit of Israel; and Ram Vaswani of the United Kingdom all won events at the Rio in Las Vegas.
The international flavor of the 2007 WSOP carried over to the Main Event. Six nations - Canada, Denmark, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States - were represented at the Main Event final table, making it the most internationally diverse final table in the 38-year history of the $10,000 tournament.
In the end it was Jerry Yang, a Laotian who came to America as a refugee, who emerged victorious.
#img: london_12112.jpg: left#
To put the final stamp of authenticity on poker's expansion into a worldwide game, the WSOP flew to London in September 2007 and held three events, all of which awarded bracelets to the winner.
Eighteen-year-old Norwegian online phenom Annette Obrestad won the £10,000 Main Event. In the process she set a record for youngest bracelet winner in WSOP history that won't be broken in Las Vegas without a change in the Nevada gaming laws.
Conclusion
While the UIGEA had a big impact on their business, online poker rooms were able to generate steady revenue at a lower level by increasing their global outreach. The new international focus of the online poker industry helped to create a rich environment for the growth of already-existing major international poker tournaments and the expansion of the tournament schedule outside North America.
We'll wrap up the series on Thursday with a look at where poker in all its forms might be headed next.
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#336 - FTOPS VII Event #8 Preview - Meet Julius Goat (Again)
I’ve got a horse in $120 + $9 NLHE KO FTOPS Event (#8) on Sunday at 14:00 ET. Or a goat. It’s Julius_Goat, the runner-up in the “Michael Craig is Giving it Away” contest. (And yes, I will be writing...
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