3: Barrels of an 888Poker flavour including the full line-up of wingmen in the 8-Team World Series of Poker promotion, a Chris Moorman freeroll, and the new Gr8Debate concept.
Poker players are flesh and blood.
They are judges, schoolteachers, and steelworkers.
They are married, divorced, widowed.
Some play poker on their mobile phone when they take a number two. Others sit down in front of a two monitor set up to play so many tables it would send most people to the sanatorium.
They are from Tokyo, Barcelona, and Hull.
They have OCD, ADHD, and HIV.
And they all have one thing in common.
They want companies to see who they are and reflect that back to them in their product.
888Poker is doing just that.
There has been a seismic increase in activity within the corridors of power at the second largest online poker room in the world. They have the perfect blend of Ambassadors, the photographs and videos from the 888Live events are World Class, and the activity on social media has been both interesting and entertaining.
Here are three recent examples that have caught my eye, in the past few days.
The 8-Team Promotion
Last week I wrote about the 8-Team promotion where five lucky players competing in the WSOP Main Event, via 888Poker, will get the opportunity to talk strategy with Ambassadors representing eight national teams, accompanied by eight wingmen.
I won’t waste words.
Check out the article for yourself.
At that time two wingmen were missing from the sticker album, and this week 888Poker filled them in.
Here is a remainder of the teams:
Team UK: Chris Moorman and Will Kassouf
Team Sweden: Sofia Lovgren and Martin Jacobson
Team Canada: Parker Talbot and Griffin Benger
The two team captains without wingmen were Bruno Politano (Brazil), and Dominik Nitsche (Germany), and two legends of the game of football will be joining them.
Politano’s wingman will be the former Brazilian World Cup Winner Denilson. The 888Poker Ambassador played 61 times for his country, scoring eight goals, and in 1998 he was the world’s most expensive player when he switched allegiance from Sao Paulo to Real Betis for £21.5m.
The three-time bracelet winner, Nitsche, will be accompanied by the former German footballer Mario Basler. The ex-Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich star featured 30-times for his country, scoring two goals, and winning the European Championship in 1996.
I have particularly fond memories of Basler because he scored the opening goal of the 1999 Champions League Final between Bayern and Manchester United. The Red Devils would win the tie 2-1 with two extra-time goals, sending my brain whistling past Pluto in a rocket ship full of acid.
888Poker are yet to announce the five lucky winners who can bend the ears off the Team Captains and Wingmen.
The Chris Moorman Freeroll
888Poker has had a sterling start to the 48th Annual WSOP with a two of their ambassadors putting in some decent performances.
Bruno Politano has cashed in three events including bubbling the final table of the $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) event. And Chris Moorman won his first-ever bracelet when he took down the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event for $498,683.
The timing was perfect for Moorman, who releases his second book Moorman in July and to celebrate the gold coming home to 888, the online poker room hosted a special $3k GTD Chris Moorman Victory Freeroll.
Unfortunately, due to a technical fault 888 had to cancel the tournament, but immediately dished the prize pool out evenly to those who had registered. The event ran smoothly at the second time of asking.
The Gr8Debate
Finally, both Cate Hall and William Kassouf were invited to attend 888Live Barcelona recently. Both players put on a good show with Kassouf finishing in eleventh spot, and Cate Hall losing out in fourth.
While in the Catalan country the two former lawyers also took part in a new tongue in cheek concept called the Gr8Debate, where two players (in this case, Hall and Kassouf), debate a contention poker point.
Kara Scott stuck a ballpoint pen in her bun, donned a pair of specs, and chaired the discussion as the two had 60-seconds to air a view on whether the industry should take measures to reduce table talk in live poker.
Here is the end result.
So how does all of this activity make you feel?
Do you feel seen?
Do you feel heard?
