In this week’s round-up of all things chips and cards Montreal Nationals win Season 1 of the Global Poker League, Jason Ader tells David Baazov to buzz off, and much more.
I’m going to begin this week’s glance over the poker community’s shoulder by focusing on two news stories that didn’t cause as much as a ripple in poker’s ocean, but I believe will eventually lead to a tidal wave of change.
It won’t be long before we all turn into a nation of fat people floating around on space pods like the movie Wall-E. Nobody will want to play physical sports because it will seem like too much effort. Nah, we will be playing sports from those pods.
We see the green shoots of growth in eSports. Kids don’t give a monkey’s about football, basketball or whatever ball. All they want to do is masturbate, eat garbage and play computer games online.
So when Randy ‘nanonoko’ Lew signed for eSports outfit Team Liquid this week it was a sign of the times. Lew joins fellow PokerStars Team Pro, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, as a Team Liquid Hearthstone player – and they won’t be the last. I can see more following in the future as online poker rooms realise the potential of tapping into an audience of over 40 million people in the US online.
And just to emphasise my point, 888Poker also joined the party this week when they agreed on a partnership with FlowEsports. The quartet will wear 888Poker patches when streaming their action on Twitch and also air poker sessions played out on the 888 platform at least once a week.
And I sit here patiently waiting for the first Manic Miner eSports competition because when it happens, I am going to take that mother down to Chinatown.
The Montreal Nationals Win The Global Poker League
One person who recognises the potential to learn from eSports is Alex Dreyfus. The Frenchman with balls the size of King Kong’s was bold enough to launch the Global Poker League (GPL) amid a hail of whatishethinkingofit’sgoingtocrapandIamgoingtotweetsasmuchwheneverIcanwithoutwatchinganyoftheaction haters, and it ended this week with the first-ever winners.
The Montreal Nationals took the $100,000 first prize after beating the Berlins Bears in an enthralling battle that went all the way to the cheese wire.
The second season promises to be even better with plans for fan integration, a shorter and sweeter season and plans to widen the demographic including a standalone GPL product in China.
Baazov Told to Buzz Off; party serves an ace; Winamax Launch DC Games; MPNPT Heads to Vienna
SpringOwl CEO Jason Ader doesn’t give two hoots about the former Amaya CEO David Baazov. SpringOwl owns 2% of Amaya, and that gives Ader reason to be concerned when someone publicly airs their plans to take a sub-section of that company private. Ader told Amaya to reject Baazov’s bid; sever all ties with the former chief and focus on trying to make some money.
From the old king of online gambling to the old king of tennis and partypoker has signed Boris Becker to act in the role of ambassador for the online poker room. And Becker needs the work after splitting with Novak Djokovic by mutual decision. Jan-Peter Jachtmann also joined the poker room although you wouldn’t have noticed because he signed the same time the king did.
Winamax became the first online poker room to offer Dealers Choice (DC) cash games. I talked to a few pros about my idea that DC is the best goddam poker game in the universe and makes No-Limit Hold’em look like Donald Trump sitting in the Oval Office next to Barack Obama. You can read all about it right here.
And the Microgaming Poker Network Poker Tour (MPNPT) announced plans to return to Vienna for their first live event of 2017. The Montesino Casino will play host, and there will be a unique MPN Vienna 9 cash game with €30,000 up for grabs.
WPT Prague; WPT Five Diamond; MyWPT
It’s been a busy week for the crew at the World Poker Tour (WPT). The WPT Main Event in Prague turned out to be a disappointing affair with only 167 players showing up. Oleg Vasylchenko defeated Anton Petrov in heads-up action to take the title. Erik Cajelais followed up on his runner-up spot at the partypoker Millions with a 10th place finish.
The Europeans haven’t fallen in love with the WPT brand, but the Americans can’t get enough of it. They might not have turned up in Prague, but they were sticking poker tables in the toilets to keep up with the numbers at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
All told, 791 entrants created a prize pool of over $7.6m, making it the largest attendance for a $10k+ event in the tour’s 14-year history. The winner will pick up $1.9m, the 17th highest score of the year, and at the time of writing, there are 75 players left including heroes such as Justin Bonomo, Dzmitry Urbanovich, Dan Smith, Joe Hachem, Antonio Esfandiari and Mike Matusow.
And the WPT took full advantage of that vast field by busting out their new app. The MyWPT app is a one-stop-shop for all things live reporting and allows the players to receive photographs, updated chip counts and even send hands to the live reporting team. You can check out my review right here.
A Buzz Through The Best of the Rest
Two poker players from California won their case against Iowa State Troopers who stole $100,000 from them back in 2013. The courts awarded them $60,000 in damages, which, when you take court costs and things into consideration, netted them $10,00 each. I guess it’s the point of principal that counts.
Traian Bostan won the biggest ever Unibet Open in Bucharest for €100,000; Jack Salter picked up close to half a million in an Aria High Roller and Jose Barbero become the one and only person to win three Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) Main Events with victory in Sao Paulo earning $100k in the process.
Time ladies & gentlemen, please.
Someone has just called the clock.
