Previous members of the arena Series of Poker's November Nine have found a ton of success playing tournaments within the lead as much as the overall table, and this year could be no different, after every week wherein two of this year's players both booked big scores.
Some of the game's biggest names also stayed the spotlight, with Daniel Negreanu talking with PokerNews, Jason Mercier promising to stream his WCOOP High Roller efforts and Phil Galfond telling the arena he's able to get into the net poker operator business.
All this and more on 888poker's foray into festivals on this week's Five Thoughts.
1. A Company Man
Daniel Negreanu is rarely short on opinions. That fact used to be again on display in a wide-ranging interview with tournament poker's all-time leading money winner and PokerNews' Live Reporting Manager Frank Op de Woerd in Barcelona last month. The piece ran in this site this week.
Leaning towards liberalism myself, I'm often on Negreanu's side politically and on many issues facing the poker community. I FEEL he's a logical thinker; he does what he does and says what he says for the affection of the sport — A position that's always easy to support. But reading this actual interview, I STARTED to take issue with what I see as a disturbing trend.
Whether it's ultimately a plan by Amaya's media relations department, or simply Negreanu going off on his own, the most important ambassador for the brand, and poker as a whole, appears to be becoming somewhat of a company apologist these days.
First, with the general public relations blunder that was the last minute changes to the site's SuperNove Elite rewards program, and now, with changes to the payout structures at live events and other issues facing the company, Negreanu seems to continually be the only trotted out to give an explanation for where the corporate is coming from. He's the only making the reasons. No other Team PokerStars Pros seems to have anything to mention on matters of corporate policy. Most seem capable of simply play the game, while Negreanu plays the face of the company.
As as a result all this, Kid Poker needed to face a bit of fire within the Op de Woerd interview, explaining where the "mind-blowing promotions" he allegedly said were coming to the location had disappeared to. Negreanu played a bit of semantics here, letting Op de Woerd know he never actually made any promises, the promotions could still be coming down the pipe within the near future and apologizing again for shake-ups at Amaya that can have bogged down the entire process.
The disappointing a part of all this is not that the promotions aren't here, it's that Negreanu even needed to answer these questions within the first place. The truth is, if poker's greatest ambassador hadn't been put, or put himself, within the position to respond to for the company's sins within the first place, he would not have to be dancing around these subjects now. All of us love that Negreanu shoots from the hip and tells it adore it is, but I DON'T BELIEVE anybody, outside of the folks in Amaya's PR department, is enjoying this new corporate spin master side of him.
2. Stream of Consciousness
Poker fans are in for an extraordinary treat this weekend as Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier is planning to live stream The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker $102,000 Super High Roller event on Twitch.TV.
Mercier will reportedly broadcast his effort to win the largest buy-in event in online poker history on a 15-minute delay with cards up on PokerStars' Twitch channel, a pair hours after the tournament kicks off Sept. 11 at 12:30 p.m. ET. Fellow Team PokerStars Pro Jason "JCarver" Somerville can also be to be had to offer some commentary.
Make no mistake about it, it is a rare glimpse into the mind of a master as one of the vital successful players within the game tries to buckle down and do what is going to undoubtedly be a tricky field on this nosebleed buy-in event.
Despite a ton of prodding from the poker press, Mercier has steadfastly refused to supply advice or give interviews regarding strategy for years. This summer, he finally relented, discussing some basic thoughts about No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw Lowball just days before winning a WSOP bracelet in that discipline.
Now, it sort of feels he's found a willingness to open up slightly more and let the general public inside in this prestigious event, and as poker fans and players, I WILL NOT help but think we're all going to be better for it.
3. Able to Run It
Online high-stakes legend Phil Galfond announced late last week he and his partners on the RunItOnce.com training site could be entering the true money online poker operators game within the first quarter of 2017.
In his news release, Galfond blogged in regards to the importance of upholding certain values as an internet poker operator because the organization prepares to go into that side of the industry, adapting to the present climate and valuing players first, whether or not they be pros or recreational players.
With greater than a decade of expertise on the highest levels of professional poker, there's no doubt an actual money online poker offering from Galfond and RunItOnce will consider the pro poker player in all it does. What is still seen is whether Galfond and his partners are in contact in any respect with what recreational players want and wish from a web based poker site.
Considering the truth that industry leader PokerStars seems to be suffering from changes aimed toward attracting more recreational players every day, despite having a ton more experience as a web-based poker operator, it's hard to assume Galfond and RunItOnce will arrive at the scene next year and immediately be any better at it.
It's also hard to assume a brand spanking new online poker room succeeding in any respect within the current political climate and state of the global online poker economy.
I wish Galfond and all the organization the most efficient of luck on this endeavor; I just hope they've deep pockets, an effective marketing strategy and an actual commitment to the long term here, because on this day and age, success for a brand new online poker operator definitely isn't going to return overnight.
4. Success Breeds Success
Congratulations to Gordon Vayo and Kenny Hallaert, who continued the long-standing tradition of November Niners and located success within the time between locking up seats on the World Series of Poker Main Event final table and playing all the way down to a champion this week.
Vayo won the $2,500 WinStar River Poker Series Main Event, taking essentially the most money out of a five-way chop to book a hefty $587,120 score. Hallaert went online and won the partypoker Grand Prix, getting the most efficient of a 4,600-entry field to win $65,000.
Perhaps the one November Niner happier than these two was chip leader Cliff Josephy, who took to Twitter to jokingly remind the pair to maintain using up their run good before play resumes within the 2016 WSOP Main Event on the end of October.
5. A Festival of Festivals
It's definitely exciting to look 888poker jump within the poker festival game. The success of the eu Poker tour was built across the many events surrounding the principle Events, and PokerStars have been such a success with this festival-style scheduling, it's even expanding its offerings around the world now.
The new 888Live Festivals so one can kick off in London, England at Aspers Casino for 11 days from Oct. 13 through 23 and are promising to provide bigger prize pools than anything 888poker has done before, with an estimated $500,000 up for grabs.
A number of buy ins and game variants may be at the schedule, from a £120 Lightening 6-Max to a £2,000 High Roller.
Plus, site ambassadors like Chris Moorman, Dominik Nitsche and Sofia Lövgren are expected to turn up and can carry $888 bounties on their heads inside the different events.
The new 888Live Festivals are starting small, with plans to provide only a couple more stops inside the calendar year, but they're certain to be fun and a super promotional tool for the positioning going forward.
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