Wednesday, April 27, 2011

US Players Starting To Get Money Back

Great news that PokerStars has started to pay out to US players who are no longer able to play on the site.

Reports are that withdrawals are processing with little or no problems.

This should ease some of the concern around smaller numbers at the WSOP this year and give lots of players hope that funds from other sites will be recovered.

I wonder what all the players with huge balances will do with the money? I'm sure we'll hear some great tales of degeneracy in the coming months.

Fingers crossed for those with money in Full Tilt and AP/UB.

This is a great boost to me personally as the majority of the players I back play on Stars (In addition to non-US facing sites) so while I still face some interesting transfer issues now that 'ship it to me online' is no longer an option I'm glad the money is back in safe hands.

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Friday, April 22, 2011

Online Poker Advertising

It's really weird seeing adverts from poker rooms like Sky Poker, Betfair and some other smaller sites on forums and other poker related sites. They were so much a part of the furniture that they really jump out at me, I'm so used to seeing the same banners and logos everywhere.

I guess if you remove the two biggest sites everyone else can afford to enter the market where advertising is concerned.

I wonder if we'll see a bunch more sites putting patches on players at the WSOP this year? Could be a nice opportunity for a site with a decent marketing budget to get some great exposure.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

US Facing Poker Sites

I have received a number of emails in the last couple of days offering great deposit bonuses and other deals to encourage people to play at the poker sites still able to accept US players.

I'm not American so it makes no difference to me, but for anyone who is I'd strongly advise that you don't deposit on these sites. While some of the bigger sites have been able to cut deals to potentially release funds, I can't see the smaller sites negotiating the return of players money.

The sites emailing these offers really don't have your best interests at heart, as they'll get a percentage of your rake or a one off sign up bonus when you sign up and deposit through them.

They have nothing to lose, you do.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

DOJ Gives Domain Names Back

Good news from the DOJ press release, looks like FTP and Stars are getting domain names back to facilitate the return of funds to US players.

The document suggests there was an agreement, looking forward to hearing what that was.

UB and AP not named, as much as I dislike the sites I'd prefer for people who have money there, however silly that might have been, to get it back.

Info from Kevmath on Twitter.

The Fallout and the Future

Over the last could of days I’ve read various blogs and forum posts about the ‘Poker Apocalypse’ and I agree with most of what’s being said. I think that in some cases people may be over reacting a bit (on Friday people were suggesting a worldwide shutdown was coming within 48 hours) but overall players and the poker media have been fairly objective and relatively calm given the situation.

However, the one thing I have to disagree with that I’ve seen written in a number of places is that the removal of PokerStars and Full Tilt from the market (temporary or otherwise) could be a good thing. I understand the angle people are coming from, if you remove the two biggest sites you remove the fact that they have somewhat of a monopoly on the market.

The problem is that these sites are where they are because they are good at what they do. I’m sure everyone has had their problems with support at these sites over the years, but they are generally very quick to respond and helpful when they do. These two sites have set the bar in almost every respect, from tournaments and cash games to new concepts like rush poker, multi entry tournaments and double or nothings. Their size, profitability and volume of players allows them to try new things, develop new concepts and invest in the software, support teams and players.

Also, it’s not like there is the pool of players knocking around online and they just so happen to pick FTP or Stars. In most cases it’s one of these two sites that actually got people online to play poker on the internet in the first place. They run TV shows as headline sponsors, they run adverts in traditional media, magazines, websites and they have done a great job of adopting social media.

They also do a great job of retaining players with their frequent player programmes and rakeback. While I’m still bitter at the fact that I don’t get rakeback at FTP, Stars has kept me playing there with frequent deposit bonuses, VIP instant rewards and FPP bonuses.

Let’s not forget that they have had competition in the US (and continue to do so in Europe and the rest of the world) and Doyles Room, Cake Poker and the like have failed to capture enough of the market to make them anywhere near as competitive.
It’s also important to note that they have always had major competition, each other. When FTP decided to try to break the world record for the number of entrants in a tournament, Stars decided to beat them the week after. When you’re lucky enough to make a feature or final table in a big live tournament you do have at least two options most of the time on who to represent.

I have no affiliation with these sites, don’t have an advertising interests and the reason I’m not talking about UB/AP is because I don’t play there, and haven’t since all the original superuser details came out.
I’m all for competition and healthy competition clearly has its advantages for players and the poker media, but let’s not get carried away with what we want to see in the future.

After all, nobody was complaining when they were still around.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

PokerStars Big Game Canceled

I'm sure there will be more shows and other media axed as I said in my post a few days ago, but I've just read that the PokerStars Big Game might not be back and that makes me sad.

It's a real shame because it was a fantastic concept and I liked the range of players they had on. I really enjoy High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark but they do feature a lot of the same players. It was great to see some decent online high stakes pros mix it up with the old guard and the loose cannon.

I'm a huge Huff & Stapes fan and I have to admit I actually quite like Gobboboy too, so I'm gutted to see such talent come off TV so soon after it got going. Hopefully they'll land on their feet and find something else soon.

It's a sign of things to come unfortunately.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Severity of DOJ Online Poker Charges

There seems to be growing speculation that the charges brought against the individuals involved in Stars. Full Tilt and UB/AP could have wider reaching consequences for the sites than initially thought, namely that they may actually end in the shutdown of all three major online poker sites.

It seems like a genuine threat, which is very concerning. The speculation is being lead by the money laundering charges. These are the most serious because regardless of your stance on online poker or gambling in general money laundering is a very serious crime. It’s unlikely that the DOJ would even have pursued the case if it were not for the money laundering part from what I’ve read.

So while we’re (and I’m referring to non-US players) all breathing a sigh of relief that we can still play poker and the games haven’t been effected in a devastating way, we could be in for a shock some time soon if this is pursued.

As I said in my previous post, sites like Party are in great shape at the moment, and even more so if the DOJ is planning to bring the hammer down. Only time will tell if their patience, and money, will pay off.

Post US Player Ban Fields Exceed Guarantees

I’m surprised at the field sizes online after ‘Black Friday’ as some of them were much bigger than expected in light of not taking US players.

It looks like a few players from the US did actually manage to play online yesterday. I think they have simply not logged out since before the ban, so I suppose they’ll be good until the reset servers.

While I can’t really blame them for getting in one last Sunday grind, I don’t think I’d continue to play in light of everything that’s happened. They might have been better off using the fact that they can still play to transfer money to other players who can get it offline for them, although there are obviously risks associated with that too.

Some of the bigger tournies had prizepools as follows:

Stars:

Kickoff ($75k Guarantee) $86k
Warm Up ($500k) $747k
Daily 40k - $106k
DNG ($200k) $251k
Storm ($200k) $301k

FTP:

Double Deuce – Multi Entry ($200k) $200k
FTOPS Event 1 – Multi Entry ($1m) $1.39m

With the reduced guarantees there wasn’t much chance of the overlay many people (myself included) were expecting. This is even more impressive when you add in the fact that French and Italian players no longer play on the main sites. It’s a mark of how far poker has come, as when the UIGEA came into effect Party dropped the Party Million to a $200k guaranteed tournament.

Stars and FTP have both done a great job at attracting players from around the world with sponsorship deals, TV shows and international marketing.

It doesn’t look like online poker is going anywhere yet. Hopefully it will be alive and kicking when US player get their freedom back.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

New Online Poker World

The news that US players are no longer able to play online poker and that accounts are currently frozen is clearly bad for everyone involved in the industry, but what can we expect to see now?:

Online Marketing – It doesn’t look good for forums, poker podcasts, affiliate sites and anything that pretty much relies on two or three main sites as sources of income. I guess these types of income could be replaced by non-poker advertising for products likely to appeal to the poker player market, but with a potential reduction in traffic this might be a hard sell.

Player Sponsorship – Apparently Viffer was a couple of days away from signing a big deal with PokerStars. I wonder what will happen to all the ‘paid’ pros at FTP and Stars? The Red Pros at FTP have fairly basic rakeback type deals they they’ll simply lose out on those, but some of the deals must be fully contracted, monthly payment deals. I think we’ll see a few more players getting dropped.

Poker on TV – The PokerStars Big Game, Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker. The TV shows that bring poker to the mainstream on TV are on the whole sponsored by Stars and FTP. These shows were a key way for these sites to market to an audience that they don’t have access to via traditional marketing and advertising activity. I’m interested to see what happens to these now.

Live Poker - It seems likley that there will be an increase in live play in the US, but the WSOP should be interesting this year, as online sites were a common route to the Main Event. We could see a field of 5,500 or less this year. There may also be a knock on effect on the prelims if money in online accounts remains frozen. Many players would have been cashing that out to play this year.

Non US players - I think we'll continue to see a strong market, especially on Stars. Even tonight, the Daily Ninety Grand is running on Stars, with full guarantee, 2,244 players and a $112k prizepool. The Sunday Million has had $500k dropped from it’s guarantee (to $1m) but things seem about as normal as they could be, given the circumstances.

In all this is difficult to speculate on how long (if ever) it will take to get US players back online, but will people keep sponsorship deals, TV shows, training sites and other activity in operation in the hope that if they keep going they’ll be around and ready for a second poker boom if poker gets legalised?

Party Poker looks to be in good shape now. That $300m or whatever they paid to the US government doesn't look so bad now...