WSOP Day 1 - Phil Ivey not playing WSOP, Bord and Juanda have a scrap

Well, the first 24 hours or so of the WSOP haven’t been without event, that much is for sure.

One thing I forgot to mention in my opening post yesterday was the stick that Full Tilt and other pros who represent sites who are yet to return player money would get from other players.

It was a pretty big oversight, because clearly those who have significant amounts of money tied up in these sites are going to be emotionally charged and in an environment where they are able to confront well known associates of the sites face to face.

It looks like first to create a scene was James Bord, who politely waited around for Jon Juanda to finish his match in the $25k HU event before launching into what appears to be a tirade of abuse at the Full Tilt pro.

Rio security were seen in the lobby giving Bord a hard time about his actions afterwards. Let’s hope there isn’t a hard penalty for his actions despite the fact that they were clearly not the best way to approach any situation that may have occurred.

After the words ‘thieving’ and ‘disgrace’ were heard it sounds like he made a physical threat which I’m sure the Rio security team will have to take seriously. It’s worth noting that Bord is British, so while it’s unlikely any of his own money is held up it’s possible he does have a significant interest in any horses he may have or money owed he’s not getting. There is some speculation that it may not have anything to do with Full Tilt paying out US players.

If Bord and Juanda’s tiff at the Rio was a warm up, then clearly Phil Ivey’s announcement on Facebook was the main event…

To cut a fairly long story short: Phil Ivey isn’t playing in the WSOP this year, and he’s files a law suit against Tiltware, the company that operates Full Tilt Poker.



Phil's statement from Facebook (page can be found here):

For many years, I have been proud to call myself a poker player. This great sport has taken me to places I only imagined going and I have been blessed with much success. It is therefore with deep regret that I believe I am compelled to release the following statement.

I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed. I am equally embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in tournaments and have suffered economic harm.
I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible.

My name and reputation have been dragged through the mud, through the inactivity and indecision of others and on behalf of all poker players I refuse to remain silent any longer. I have electronically filed a lawsuit against Tiltware related to the unsettled player accounts. As I am sure the public can imagine, this was not an easy decision for me.

I sincerely hope this statement will ignite those capable of resolving the problems into immediate action and would like to clarify that until a solution is reached that cements the security of all players, both US and International, I will, as I have for the last six weeks, dedicate the entirety of my time and efforts to finding a solution for those who have been wronged by the painfully slow process of repayment.

The news came by way of Facebook with conformation seemingly from Wicked Chops Poker first after speaking to Phil's agent.

Without the slick PR machine of Full Tilt behind Phil I guess we can forgive the strange medium and approach of the announcement, including the 'PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIAYE RELEASE' on his website.



While some people are complaining about Phil's own self interest or some other agenda he might have I personally have a lot of respect for Phil and this really only cements his reputation as a stand up guy in my opinion.

Tom Dwan has publicly stated (by way of his Twitter account) that he will return all of the money he's made from Full Tilt in the event that players don't get their money back and that he'll be playing the WSOP.

In other news, Joe Sebok arrives tomorrow, that should be interesting...

---

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.

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.

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...

Good Start To 2009

2009 has been kind to me so far. I won a seat to the GUKPT on Thursday, final tabled the $27.5k at FTP on Friday and finished 15/1450 in the $21k last night.

In the $27.5k I had a top 10 stack from 3 tables down, but never really got much going at the FT. In the $21k I lost a huge pot for the chip lead when tere was 15 left with AA < QJs after getting it all in pre.

So some good performances but an obvious lack of closing. Hopefully I can build on these and continue to work on my tournament game this year. Getting close to some $10k scores definitely increases my motivation.

I have managed to log just over 10k hands at $400 NL 6 max (at an epic 2BB/100) and around another 5k hands trying a bit of $100 NL HU.

2007 was my first full year playing poker and I made some goals at the start of the year which I surpassed and took beyond anything I could have imagined before the end of March. In 2008 I didn't really set any goals (or if I did, I don't remember what they were and certainly wasn't sticking to them) So I have decided that my only goal for 2009 is get get less terrible at poker. I'm going to study as much as I can, because to say I have neglected studying over the past year or so would be putting it mildly.

This means more Cardrunners, Stox and DC in addition to getting hold of a couple of decent books. I also need to get more time in discussing hands with other players, so I'll hopefully be making a conscious effort to do that too.