Lee Davy reaches out to a swathe of poker players and online poker operators to see if they care if David Baazov was to take PokerStars private and he doesn’t think they will.
I feel guilt.
I wake up with thoughts of my ‘to do list’. My 12-week old girl is cooing in the other room. My wife soothes her. Should I go in and say good morning? How long will I be there? I may end up being a Dad for the next few hours. What about that list?
I ignore the cooing and soothing.
I head downstairs.
I write.
Selfish?
Consider this.
My eldest is 15-years old. I don’t remember him cooing. I didn’t have the freedom poker provides. I went to work and returned 12 hours later drained of life. My son would hug my leg; giggling. I would swing him into the front room.
“Daddy, play with me.”
“Leave your Dad alone,” my wife used to say. “He’s only just walked through the door.”
“Later.” I would say before finally shaking him free.
Then I was reading him a bedtime story. I was always in a rush; never present. I couldn’t pause poker like Sky HD. As I read about Frodo Baggins and his journey to Mordor, my stack was being blinded away.
Then this was written on my divorce papers.
All he does is play poker all of the time
I couldn’t argue. It was true. It was my escape. It was my one thing. And this is why I fully support PokerStars and their shift towards the recreational player while also feeling the angst in the way they have gone about it.
How Much Time Do You Have?
I used to play in a home game on a Tuesday night. Wednesday was a write off due to a lack of sleep. Then came Sunday’s at the casino. And then came Micromillions. Cash games. FTOPS. SCOOP.
How much time do you have?
I don’t have any.
I have to write things like this to pay my bills. I have to listen to my daughter cooing. I have to make my wife feel like I care. I have to be a great father for my son. I have to read. I have to interview people for my podcast. And once a night I watch a show. I guess I could kill Mr Robot, Fargo and Game of Thrones. Everything else is essential.
When PokerStars created Spin & Go and Beat The Clock, I was grateful. I don’t want to be a professional poker player. I just want to play, and cash games and tournaments don’t fit into my worldview. I don’t like the narrative of the cash games. There is no heroes journey. The tournaments take too long. These new games, which the pros abhor, prevent me from entering the divorce courts for the second time.
They are perfect.
Who is the Customer?
I’m learning about the bond between client and customer. I am trying to make a living helping people quit alcohol. I need to have my ear to the ground. I need to understand their worldview so I can find solutions
to their problems.
People ask me to help them quit alcohol, smoking, pornography, sugar and all manner of bad habits.
How can I help all of these people with so many different issues?
During a recent training course with branding expert Bernadette Jiwa, I asked her that question:
“Find a problem they all share.” She said.
And so I did.
PokerStars have the same problem. They have professional poker players, semi-professional poker players and recreational poker players. They can’t satisfy all of their demands because their worldviews are different. They have to find the common bond, and they have done that by providing the best playing experience available online.
They also choose to service their core customer. They are looking at the numbers rather than listening to the loudest. I can’t fault that logic.
Poor communication and a focus on costs have alienated a significant portion of the professional players. But PokerStars player numbers are increasing. If I didn’t work within the industry, I wouldn’t be aware of the lack of etiquette on the part of the PokerStars hierarchy.
I asked a selection of recreational poker players for their opinion on PokerStars customer service, and none of them cared. It hadn’t affected them in the slightest. I asked for their thoughts on David Baazov taking PokerStars private. Nobody knew who is was. Further prodding revealed they didn’t know Amaya had bought PokerStars or that Isai Scheinberg was the founder.
And they weren’t alone.
Would David Baazov Make PokerStars Great Again?
When I seek opinion on a post like this, I like to ask 50-players. I am typically looking at a 35-40% response rate. But this question was greeted with tumbleweed. An established World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner didn’t even know who David Baazov was but didn’t want me to quote him.
He was the only one who didn’t know who Baazov was, but he wasn’t alone with his lack of familiarity with his bid to take PokerStars private. The majority of players I approached said they weren’t keeping up with the news nor did they care. And it wasn’t an ‘I have had enough of PokerStars,’ attitude. People weren’t interested.
Here was another typical response:
“I have nothing good to say about PokerStars.”
It surprised me.
I was expecting the dissenting voices to reveal their outs. The grand master plans to make PokerStars great again. But those thoughts never surfaced leading me to believe I had either asked the wrong people or the people I asked couldn’t think of a better way of running things. I believe that it’s the latter.
Here were the sparse replies I received.
“I would be disappointed if he regains control of Amaya after all that has transpired this year.” Said David Huber. “Baazov’s complete disregard for the online poker community and penchant for negative press do not represent the leadership qualities needed at this critical juncture in our industry.”
“While I’m not currently able to play on PokerStars – I honestly don’t think that the idea of David buying PokerStars and running it as a private company would make much of a difference unless they focused more on growing the online poker industry.” Said Tyler Corbett. “Amaya has made a bunch of changes that have made the game much harder for full-time grinders to make a living, and I feel that it would probably have a negative effect overall on the site. However, that effect would be negligible unless he decided to hire some actual grinders to help consult with the industry.”
I’m not saying the former World Champ had his pom-poms out, but Martin Jacobson had a differing view.
“I think it would be good for the players and the future of PokerStars, which still has the majority market share of online poker.” Said Jacobson. “I doubt anyone can make worse business decisions than Amaya has made so far, so it will definitely be a positive change.”
Final Thoughts
This was supposed to be an article full of interesting observations from the professionals on how David Baazov would either run PokerStars into the ground or send it to new heights. Instead, I struggled to get anyone to voice an opinion. I considered dropping the idea, but the more I thought about it, there was a reason nobody wanted to express an opinion, and I felt that reason needed prodding.
If you forget for a moment that PokerStars have dealt with their changes in an incredibly insensitive manner, I can’t recollect reading too many opinions on how they should be doing things differently. I hear dissent, not solutions.
The situation reminds me of the rail unions that are currently threatening to bring the UK to a halt. The bosses at Southern Rail want to introduce productivity measures to reduce costs. Train drivers will undertake some of the conductor’s tasks such as closing the doors. Conductors will lose their jobs.
While this is tragic – if you are a conductor – it’s simple business logic. The reaction from the trade union is to go on strike. I have a lot of experience sitting in these meetings, and I can’t remember a trade union sub-committee ever coming up with a more cost-effective solution to a proposed managerial change.
I think poker is suffering from the same issues.
PokerStars wants to make cost reductions. It makes business sense. It will lead to some poker players losing their jobs. The frustration boils over into blog posts, interviews and social media spewings. But when it comes to moving all-in it’s difficult to find a better way of doing things.
People might ask what credentials do I have to make these assumptions?
I am the very type of customer PokerStars are seeking to impress.
The changes PokerStars are making fit my worldview. They understand my life and are offering solutions. I don’t care about rake and neither do any of my friends. We don’t think about it. It’s the price for playing, and we pay it. If that makes us stupid, then so be it. We don’t care. All we care about is squeezing in some poker without feeling guilty about leaving everyone else out in the cold.
