partypoker LIVE become the primary sponsor of the Triton Poker High Roller series in Montenegro, and Matt Kirk and Leon Tsoukernik kiss and makeup ahead of wild swings in the partypoker Big Game.
Phil Galfond tells the world that that Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) are as welcome on RunItOnce (RIO) Poker as Police Battalion 101 was to Poland in the early 1940s.
A bell sounds in my empty head.
In the past week or so, between 22:00 and midnight, I have laid down next to my little bundle of love reading Michael Schrager’s classic tale Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?
I’m in Tescos, and the thought once again pops into my head – who are Tescos trying to make me become?
I pitch my tent in the campsite next to 50-year old mods shining their Lambrettas hoping a genie will emerge so they can turn back time to the riots of the 1970s, and there it is again.
I turn on Gmail and read that partypoker LIVE will sponsor the Triton Poker event in Montenegro, and there’s Schrager again, like a woodpecker boring into the wood seeking sanctuary.
It’s like a jigsaw puzzle.
I can’t find an important piece.
Partypoker LIVE – the High Stakes Revolution
Long before partypoker fired a few ‘MILLIONS’ engraved bullets into the buttocks of PokerStars, I sat down with John Duthie to talk about his recent appointment as President of a brave new world.
I can’t remember the nuts and bolts of the conversation. Shit, I can’t remember this morning. But I recall Duthie exchanging spit that contained the view that partypoker wasn’t in the High Roller business. I left that tete-a-tete believing the goal was to focus on changing the lives of the gas fitters, mental health professionals, and baristas.
Things have changed.
The sun has emerged from behind the lowest grey ceiling you will find anywhere in the world. People with zero confidence reveal the whiteness of their flesh, pulling at the hem of their too-short skirts like a person with the runs pulling on a toilet chain, and partypoker LIVE has become THE business.
Fedor Holz.
When you hire rocket launchers, you need to give them a place to unload.
Rob Yong.
Leon Tsoukernik.
Out of nowhere, partypoker is running the highest stakes online games this side of the man in front of me driving a mobility scooter the size of a truck through the coffee shop thoroughfare knocking chairs over like skittles.
The MILLIONS brand picked up the pace. It quickly became the go-to place for live tournament action, and an impressive high stakes schedule saw the best in the business booking flights for their personal chefs as they added partypoker LIVE events to their PokerStars high stakes schedule.
Today, if President Duthie and I sat down for a chat, methinks he would explain to me that creating the most respected high stakes brand in the world is now a goal of the division he governs with the occasional Silk Cut hanging from a dry lower lip.
Partypoker LIVE Ink Deal With Triton
In a few days time, a section of the partypoker top brass will hop on an Easyjet flight to Montenegro, jump into a taxi, and settle in beneath the rain clouds at the Maestral Resort & Casino.
Between 12th and 18th May, the Triton Poker Series is calling this beautiful part of the world, home, and partypoker LIVE is an official part of the furniture.
partypoker LIVE has agreed upon terms to become the primary sponsor of the four-event high roller series. In a press release, Duthie wrote of his company’s ‘privilege’ to hop under the covers with the ‘world’s leading Super High Roller brand.’
Joining the top brass will be two of partypoker’s heaviest high stakes hitters: Jason Koon and Isaac Haxton.
There are four events:
12-13 May – HKD 250,000 (USD 32,000) Short Deck Ante Only
13-14 May – HKD 250,000 (USD 32,000) 6-Max NLHE
15-17 May – HKD 1,000,000 (USD 125,000) Main Event NLHE
17-18 May – HKD 1,000,000 (USD 125,000) Short Deck Ante Only
Why Make Out With Triton?
I’m making this up as I go along, but I imagine this move is about relationship building.
Sam Trickett was one of the first people hired by partypoker to promote the brand. Trickett made a mint competing in the highest stakes games in the world, and these games took place in Macau. One of the players competing in these games was Richard Yong, the founder of the Triton Poker Series.
Back to Schrager’s question – Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become? Maybe partypoker want you to ‘believe’ you can become the next Sam Trickett? If this is the case, then forging relationships with the movers and shakers of high stakes poker in Asia, and then leveraging those relationships makes perfect sense. Quid pro quo, if Triton wants to become the world leader in high stakes poker action, then creating a tag team with partypoker is a wise move.
Leon Tsoukernik and Matt Kirk Kiss And Makeup
To you and I, the $2m dispute between Leon Tsoukernik and Matt Kirk seems like a life and death scenario.
But life is relative.
During the recent partypoker MILLIONS action in North America, the pair sat down and competed in the Big Game where Kirk lost approx. $4.7m, and Tsoukernik won approx. $3.5m.
It makes the $2m squabble look like chicken feed.
You can check out the highlights here, and if you’re wondering how Kirk and Tsoukernik were able to shake hands given the history between the pair, apparently they stopped paying Las Vegas lawyers a while back, deciding instead to settle out of court.
Will we see the pair tussle once again in Montenegro?
Let’s hope so.
