Cates’ hot posts

One of the biggest stars in poker and one of the sharpest minds that the game has ever known, Daniel Cates has dominated in both the live and online arena during his 17-year career. A fearless mixed game player specializing in short-handed formats, he usually pedals his wares in the biggest cash games. In 2021 and 2022, though, he went back-to-back in the $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship at the World Series of Poker.

failure to pay up on a $100,000 bet

In the past week, Cates has been in the news after he took to social media to out David Oppenheim for what he alleges is failure to pay up on a $100,000 bet about which of them is hotter to women and gay men. Cates only published partial screenshots, making it hard to discern whether the bet was booked. He also alluded to “arbitration,” which was either inconclusive or unstageable.

Regardless, the post of Cates’ which piqued my interest this week had nothing to do with his perceived hotness but was actually him announcing on Instagram that he would be attending the Unibet Deepstack Open in Morocco.

Lappin sidelined

Starting this Friday in the El Saadi Casino in Marrakesh is one of the most anticipated poker events on the African continent. Ten action-packed days of tournaments ranging in buy-in from 1950 Moroccan Dirham ($195) to 20,000 Moroccan Dirham ($2000) are promised as is a very special Pot-Limit Omaha cash game in which Cates is booked to play.

When I heard about this game, I immediately wanted in on the action. You see, I recently came second in back-to-back Pot Limit Omaha tournaments at the Festival Series Malta. I picked up the phone and spoke with the organizers who initially seemed keen that I get in the mix, but rumor has it that Cates was so intimidated, both by my recent breakout results and by my handsomeness, that he vetoed me.

I would both straddle and intentionally dress poorly

Suffice to say, I was devastated. The $20/$40 game looks juicy, and I am attending the festival anyway, so I implored the Deepstack Open’s head honcho Alex Henry to make the case for me again. I assured him that I would both straddle and intentionally dress poorly so as not to upstage the 34-year-old guest of honor/heartthrob.

Surprises galore

As a compromise, it was agreed that I would commentate but not play. As a brand ambassador for Unibet, it is a greater priority that Cates feel comfortable and I am very much looking forward to critiquing Jungleman’s play. Henry told VegasSlotsOnline News that “it is an honor to have an Omaha player of David’s caliber in the booth.”

Henry added: “It is really exciting for us to be back in Marrakech and the El Saadi Casino, one of our best venues on the tour! The UDSO Omaha Cash Game Challenge will not be the only surprise – we are also hosting the first ‘Vlad Casino live tournament’ as well as blackjack and roulette tournaments.”

The livestream will be a central part of this year’s UDSO Marrakesh. The $20/$40 PLO Cash Game will be showcased on Monday night as will most of the final tables, all viewable for free at www.deepstackopen.com.

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A new bill has been introduced in Ohio which would legalize online poker as well as other iGaming in the state.

State Senator Niraj Antani (R-Miamisburg) introduced the bill, SB 312, which would allow the Buckeye State’s four casinos to operate their own online platforms, or those in partnership with other operators.

it’s time to bring iGaming out of the black market and into the sunshine”

Speaking on the Bill, Antani said: “Many Ohioans don’t have close access to a casino or racino but should be able to participate in this entertainment option. It’s time to bring iGaming out of the black market and into the sunshine to provide it safely to all Ohioans.”

However, the bill looks unlikely to make any progress in the state. Antani has stated that he will not seek re-election in 2025, and there have been no further sponsors, meaning it would have to be passed by then.

Secondly, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has recently doubled the sports betting tax in the state, and SB 312 proposes a tax rate for online poker and iGaming which is below the new figure.

The bill proposes the tax rate be set at 15%, 51% of which will go to local counties, and 34% of which will go to school districts. The remainder would be allocated to the horse racing industry, law enforcement, and problem gambling treatment.

Three of Antani’s Republican Party colleagues, Jay Edwards, Jeff LaRe, and Cindy Abrams?had previously expressed support for legalizing online gambling, with the caveat that the state should be cautious in moving forward. Antani’s bill takes things a step further but seems highly unlikely to succeed.

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The road to Barcelona

Contrary to what many believe, I still play a lot online these days, even if not quite the same volume I used to. The online landscape has changed a lot in the last ten years: it is no longer as profitable for grinders like me as it used to be. Back when my nightly expectation was four figures, I found it difficult to take nights off, because I like four figures. I don’t like three figures quite as much, which is my nightly expectation these days, and at this point in my life I don’t have the same financial imperatives to grind every day of the year. I have held onto most of the money I made in the four figure years, have other incomes streams these days, and with my kids all grown, lower expenses. But even if I could retire from playing online in the morning, I won’t, because I still love it more than anything else I do that makes money.

the company kidded itself into thinking it didn’t need the liquidity that winning grinders provided

Another thing that has changed is that to get in decent volume, you have to operate across a number of different sites. Gone are the days when you could just fire up Pokerstars any time of any day of any  month and be able to instantly register enough games to fill your screen (or in my case three screens). Stars isn’t even the market leader these days, but the firm is on the up and up again after a few years under Amaya, whose first major act when it took over was to burn the most loyal customers, the Supernova grinders. This was the era when the company kidded itself into thinking it didn’t need the liquidity that winning grinders provided, the era when poker’s ultimate shill Daniel Negreanu justified the orders of his paymaster with “more rake is better” and “winning players are bad for the ecosystem.” Worryingly, the new market leader and Negreanu’s latest paymaster is making similar noises to Amaya era Stars suggesting it doesn’t want long term winners on its site, but that’s a different story.

Under new owner Flutter, Stars has scrambled to recover ground lost under the misguided and short term thinking Amaya. The firm restored a decent rakeback scheme to reward volume, and introduced an innovative way to qualify for flagship live events with the Power Path. The key to the Power Path is not just that you can join it for cents, but more so that the highest level you can buy in directly at is $11. This prevents well rolled pros like me jumping straight into every $109 that runs and gobbling up the majority of the gold and silver passes generated. Instead, to play a $109, I have to keep firing in the $11 ones until I win a $109 seat. This in turn ensures liquidity in the 11s, as me and my ilk will play as many as we can to win as many 109 tickets as we want. To encourage us to play even lower and kickstart the $1.50 level feeders, Stars rewarded volume grinders partly in the form of $1.50 tickets.

So it was I ended up with a pile of these on my account, which I turned into a smaller pile of $11 tickets, which then became a decent number of $109s, one of which turned into a gold pass with a value of $10k a few months ago. This could be cashed in for any European Poker Tour (EPT), and I selected Barcelona, one of my favourite stops.

Let the games begin

I was asked to go along to a Stars qualifier outing to do an interview on my spin up from free $1.50 ticket to $10k package. While most of the attendees took part in a frankly dangerous looking activity contest (it’s worth looking on Twitter for footage of my Chip Race cohost David Lappin pratfalling his way through a bouncey obstacle course looking like a teletubby who unexpectedly found himself having to compete in the gymnastics at the Olympics), I was selected for the considerably safer and more dignified (or so I thought) “human chess.” This involved costumes that were far from clear: initially everyone thought the rather regal looking robes I was given meant I was a king, but it turned out I was actually a bishop, and the bin bag with a cross on the head Team Pro Felix was forced into represented the king.

while the ladies decided where we moved, we were allowed to choose what piece should be moved

The game itself had just seven human pieces: in addition to me and Felix, another young guy was a bishop, KerryJane Craigie a queen, Nick Walsh a pawn, and GJReggie and another gentleman about my age were knights. The white pieces were being moved by Jennifer Shahade, and the black pieces by another female chess crusher called Alex. There was, however, a twist: while the ladies decided where we moved, we were allowed to choose what piece should be moved. Alex figured out pretty quickly that I was the only one on the black side with even a clue about optimal chess strategy, so she deferred to me to nominate the piece to move, at least in the beginning (more on that later).

Jen started with the classic pawn move e4, and when I nominated “pawn” Alex responded with the standard enough e5. Jen countered with the very common Nf3 (knight to f3). I nominated knight, which Alex used to move human knight GJReggie to c6, setting up either a Ruy Lopez, or (less likely) a quieter opening called the Guico Piano (also known as the Italian game). Jen went with the former, moving the human bishop to b5 (by now she’d apparently taken over her side completely rather than asking them what to move). I nominated pawn allowing Alex to make theoretically standard a6 move. The normal most theoretically sound response to this is to retreat the now attacked bishop, but Jen surprised me by capturing the knight (GJReggie) with her human bishop. Although sound, this variation (referred to as the Exchange variation) is rarely played nowadays (though ironically when I was competitive I used it quite a lot against opponents I believed to be better prepared and just plain better in general than me, as I figured it was one variation they wouldn’t have me out prepared, and it’s inherently more drawy than more dynamic variations).

he drew a card that corresponded to “water gun,” and quite rightly so

It was now that I learned of another characteristic of human chess I hadn’t been warned about in advance: when a human piece is captured, bad shit happens. In this case, the capturing bishop got to use a water gun on poor captured knight GJReggie, something he took far too much relish in, at least in my opinion, and in light of the fact he was guaranteed to be captured next move (hence the name, Exchange variation), at least as long as I nominated pawn to be moved, which I did, which allowed Alex to make the standard capture. He whimpered for mercy but none was shown after he drew a card that corresponded to “water gun,” and quite rightly so.

It all comes to an end

By now it had dawned on me that the captains had been told to exchange off the human pieces as quickly as they could for the amusement of onlookers. In an effort to prevent such a fate for myself, my own strategy shifted from telling Alex what I thought was objectively the best move to a more base self preservation instinct. After Jen moved, I looked at the board and realised the best piece to nominate was knight, as the only good knight move was to e7, effectively shielding me on f8. Alex dutifully did the move, but broke ranks next move, with a rueful “I have to get you into the game, sorry,” and stripped me of my shield. When Jen moved her human knight to a position where it could be attacked by me, I knew what was coming. Alex moved me into position to capture the knight, and did so next move. Things got even hairier and scarier when my captured opponent drew a card that correlated to “you must jump in the pool now.” He didn’t seem to mind, but the prospect of drawing the same card I very much minded, dressed as I was in normal trousers (the only pair I had with me). Also, I can’t swim!

You captured him! You have to do it!”

After I was dutifully captured by a pawn next move, I was pretty relieved not to draw the same card. The one I did draw correlated to “cream pie in the face.” I’ve been friends with Shahade for a decade and could immediately tell she wasn’t relishing the task. She pleaded with Alex to do it instead only to be snap rebuffed (“You captured him! You have to do it!”). They needn’t have worried though: to my mind this was much better than getting water gunned or, heaven forbid, having to jump in the pool.

Jen’s plan B involved trying to think who the nastiest person in attendance who might relish shoving cream into my face, and the cry went up:

“Lappin….Lappin…where are you?”

My VegasSlotsOnline News, Chip Race and Unibet colleague was nowhere to be found though, and Jen had to do her own dirty work.

I’ll end with an announcement: at this time I would like to announce my retirement from my brief but memorable human chess career.

The post Dara O’Kearney: Human Chess at EPT Barcelona appeared first on Vegas Slots Online News.

But first, Estrellas

I’ve been coming to Barcelona for about a decade, to various tours. First it was EMOP, the now defunct tour of one of my first sponsors, Irish Eyes. Then it was the also now defunct MPN tour, and in more recent years the once defunct, recently revived European Poker Tour (EPT).

My Power Path gold pass bestowed upon me entries to the 1k Estrellas Main Event, the 550 Cup, and the 5k EPT Main Event. Of these, Estrellas was up first, and even before we made the money, I got a nice, unexpected bonus. As an incentive for people to link their PSLive and PokerStars accounts, the organizers were running all-in shootouts at the second break on day one for qualified players at each table. I was pleasantly surprised to see my Jack-Six off outdraw my five opponents to prevail. The prize had to be pulled from an envelope, mostly bronze passes (worth $109) with a small number of silver passes (worth $2,500 in online tickets) sprinkled in around the room. Luckbox that I am, I obviously pulled a silver pass.

a testament to the success of the event and the top-notch live events team

I made Day 2 (in the money) well below average, but managed to duck and dive for several hours to secure many ladders before ultimately busting in time to late reg the cup. A victim of its own success, there was a very long alternate list already, one my colleague David Lappin also found himself on. One of the many excellent features of the PSLive app is you can keep track of the list without being on-site, so we decamped to nearby ice cream parlor Farggi’s while we waited. When we eventually got in, my dealer told us that literally every seat at every table in the entire venue was now full across all the events. It’s a testament to the success of the event and the top-notch live events team that they kept the whole thing running smoothly.

Before the EPT Main Event there was an outing organized by Stars. Normally I don’t attend these, preferring to spend my downtime socializing with my actual friends, chilling, and studying, but I was specifically requested to attend to do an interview, which, attention whore that I am, is a great way to get me to go anywhere. It was certainly a memorable experience, and one I’ll recount in full in my next article.

EPT Barcelona Main Event Day 1

I decided to enter the EPT on the second Day 1, choosing to spend Day 1A grinding live satellites, which are always good, particularly the closer you get to the target event. I played three, winning one, and honestly was somewhat unlucky it wasn’t at least two (and it could have been three), as I lost flips in both of the ones I was unsuccessful in, and got to 95% of the target in one of them. I already shared some fresh thoughts on the format in my last article and will share some new strategic insights that only occurred to me recently in a forthcoming article.

So I spent a long day playing the satellites and decided to skip the first couple of levels of the main the next day so as not to be too tired. When I got to my table, an American lady I didn’t recognize was holding court, charming the table with her patter. Cameras were in attendance, so I figured I should recognize her, but I didn’t. Neither did any of my American friends to whom I sent my Instagram story.

unwillingness to give Ryanair an extra cent for excess baggage

She was admiring the special commemorative EPT20 jackets Stars were giving qualifiers, complaining she’d tried to buy one, but they were sold out. One tablemate jokingly (I hope) offered to sell his for 20 grand. I hadn’t bothered to collect mine as I figured it would just end up left behind in my hotel room due to my already packed to capacity with crazy shirts suitcase and unwillingness to give Ryanair an extra cent for excess baggage. So I offered to get one in her size at the break, giving it to her when we came back from that break.

Shortly afterwards, we got it all in on J-9-7. I had the nut flush draw and two overs, she had the second nut flush draw and one over, and a third player in the hand had 88. I hit one of my overs to scoop, eliminating them both, my fastest ever start to an EPT. That early near treble-up allowed me to weather almost total card death for the rest of the day. I got the bag, but not the big one I was hoping for after the great start.

On to a short Day 2

I was on the feature table at the start of Day 2, with notables Tom Middleton, Ryan Mandara, and last year’s winner Simon Wiciak. An already tough table got considerably tougher when Rob Einhorn joined, and it was against him I played my most interesting hand. I posted the details on Twitter, so I’ll spare you the repeat. Unfortunately, I busted before the first break, well before the money.

Meanwhile, I’d found out that the lady I gave my qualifier jacket to was Rania Nasreddine, who had final-tabled EPT Monte Carlo. She was going deep again, ultimately busting in 4th, a phenomenal back-to-back in the context. Heads-up came down to a transatlantic matchup as two of the good guys, Andrew Hulme and Stephen Song, chopped the money and then duked it out for the glory. It was Stephen who claimed the victory.

Winning is good, but living is better

While I was there, I played as much as I could. I scraped into the money in a 1k hyper, and also cashed the 500 event on the last day. The older I get the more I realize the relative unimportance of short-term results. Obviously, I remember the big scores, but those aside, the things I remember looking back at trips are the good times with good friends. This trip exceeded most on that front, as I got to catch up with Daragh Davey (my roommate until Lappin got there), Jennifer Shahade, Jack Sinclair, Maria Konnikova, Jamie Nixon, Michael Dwyer, Cassandra Yong, Bo Jin, KerryJane Craigie, Sabrina Chevannes, Michel Molenaar, Niall Farrell, Willie Elliot, and Pargos and his girlfriend Christine.

in Barcelona, as in the other great European cities, I eat as well or better than I do back home

One of the (many) great things I love about Barcelona as a poker stop is how easy (and inexpensive) it is to eat healthy.? I always come back from Vegas feeling run down, but in Barcelona, as in the other great European cities, I eat as well or better than I do back home. Particular shout out to my favorite brunch joint, Gabby’s.

I’ll end with another shout out and a plug for Joe Stapleton, who gave me a signed copy of his comic, the subject of a great review here at VegasSlotsOnline News by David Lappin. As a fellow author, I wish Joe all the best with his book; it deserves to be a massive success.

The post EPT Barcelona: Poker, People, and Promo Jackets appeared first on Vegas Slots Online News.

Bad timing

My co-author Barry Carter tells the story that on the day he and Jared Tendler published their first book “The Mental Game of Poker,” Black Friday happened. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s the day the feds in the US swooped and shut down the two biggest poker sites of the day, PokerStars and Full Tilt. Barry and Jared’s fears on what that meant for the sales of their new book proved unfounded, as it went on to be not only a seminal work on mindset in poker, but also possibly the best selling poker book of recent decades.

a new type of satellite in which the strategy is radically different from the traditional format

When Barry and I launched our first book “Poker Satellite Strategy,” about eight years later, once again an event on the other side of the Atlantic threatened to scupper the sales of our newborn. In this case, it was Matt Savage announcing his latest creation, a new type of satellite in which the strategy is radically different from the traditional format, so much so we feared that if it caught on it would render the book we had just published obsolescent. The new format is simple, deceptively so: in essence players win a seat not by surviving until the number of players equals the number of seats the satellite is awarding, but when they reach a specific target stack (generally the projected average required to win a seat in a traditional satellite).

Our worst fears were not realized on this occasion either, for a couple of reasons. First, the new format was slow to catch on, and second, the strategic differences were not as big as we initially thought. Over the intervening years, the new format has caught on and almost entirely taken over, so last year Barry and I added a new chapter to “Poker Satellite Strategy” covering the differences, and released a video.

The different variations

While the new format has caught on, and it’s intrinsically a simpler format than traditional satellites, it hasn’t exactly simplified things. For one thing, we can’t even agree on what to call them. Different operators use different names: landmarks, targets, milestones, 100k and away to name but a few.

Furthermore, there are several different variations. It all boils down to what happens to surplus chips when a player crosses the target, milestone or landmark. For example, someone sitting on a stack of 90k wins an all-in against a shorter stack getting them past the target of 100k to, let’s say, 120k. What do we do with the extra 20k? Again, there’s no industry agreed standard. There are at least four different answers that different operators are using:

(1) The player keeps the extra chips and is allowed to play on and win another seat. This is the simplest format as it’s basically a cash game with escalating blinds where you are forced to stay until you win a seat, or lose all your chips, or both. So there’s a linear relationship between chips and value (no ICM). This format was initially the most popular until organizers realized it meant less players would win entry to the tournament as a result of multiple seat winners. In an early one of these, one player managed to win seven seats! Because of this, this variant has almost disappeared.

(2) The extra chips just disappear from the tournament. This is inventor Matt Savage’s preference and is almost standard in the US now. It does mean that as soon as surplus chips have been taken out of the tournament, there are no longer enough left for the number of seats remaining, which in turn means at the death it reverts to being a traditional satellite, with the last few players being awarded seats without reaching the target.

(3) The extra chips are distributed equally to other players at the table of the player who just won a seat.

(4) The extra chips are distributed equally to other players who saw the river in the hand in which winning the player reached the target.

In all but type (1) there’s a non linear relationship between chips and monetary value, because any chips you win beyond the target are worthless to you. This creates some extreme ICM the closer you get to the target.

I said earlier that many of the strategies in traditional satellites still apply, and in many ways it’s a simpler format. Here’s why. One of the key skills in a traditional satellite is to estimate or calculate your COC: your percentage chance of winning a seat. A few sections of “Poker Satellite Strategy” are devoted to explaining how to do this, but in a target satellite it couldn’t be simpler: your COC is always whatever percentage of the target stack you currently have.

Pros and cons

When Matt Savage announced the new format, claims were made that it solved a number of problems associated with traditional satellites, Iike the advantages conferred by stalling late on, collusion (we have all played satellites where the locked up chip leader got to effectively decide who bubbled, or got his short stacked mate across the line), and chip stealing (organizers tell me one of the real issues with traditional satellites is that they always end with less chips than they started with, the implication being that unscrupulous players already locked up for a seat start going south). Out of these, I believe stalling is the only one it actually solves, for reasons I won’t go into here as I don’t want to tip off cheaters on reasons and methods to cheat.

in the “redistribute the surplus” variant, you can sit back and just wait for others to get over the line

It’s further claimed that this format rewards loose and aggressive play. I personally don’t buy that. Yes, you have to reach the target to get a seat, you can’t just survive on fumes til the end and get over the line with an ante, but you can get to that target any way you want. You can come out firing and gambling from the start, but you can also hang back and just wait for very good spots to inch towards the target. Additionally, in the “redistribute the surplus” variant, you can sit back and just wait for others to get over the line, and get some free chips. Of course that won’t get you there on its own, but it sure can help.

In the one I won for the Main Event in Barcelona, I was one of the last to get over the line, and calculated that I got about 30% of the target stack in redistributions. I believe that to be the optimal strategy, in fact. I dropped as low as two big blinds a few times, and passed some marginally plus chip EV spots because I was reasonably confident redistributions were coming soon. I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks this is the main edge (above skill) in these: another pro told me she routinely walks around looking at stacks deciding if or when it was optimal to late reg (when people were on the cusp of the target). You could argue that this problem only exists in the “redistribute the surplus” variants, but you’d be wrong. In the US variant all the chips are taken out of play, but this means it reverts to being a traditional satellite at the end, and many (including me) are sure that this means they should be strategically approached the same way as traditional satellites from the start.

The biggest advantage for both players and tournament organizers of the new format is they’re over much faster, meaning lower labour costs. As of yet that seems to be an organizer only benefit, as the reduced costs don’t seem to be getting passed on to players. They also place considerable demands on tournament staff, who have to run around with people exiting the tournament in both directions (as winners and losers) and verifying chip counts for winners. This means they also have to keep on top of breaking tables at double speed, created by the combination of players leaving in both directions as winners or losers. The PokerStars live events team aided by top notch technology were more than able for the task, but by contrast the World Series of Poker really struggled with this.

Now I’ve played quite a few I have identified some strategic nuances that hadn’t occurred to me before, but I will hold those back for a future piece.

The post Common Misconceptions About Target Satellites appeared first on Vegas Slots Online News.

Mystery bounty poker tournaments are becoming more prevalent, and it’s not difficult to see why. Recreational players seem to love them, and they produce big, exciting moments for social media clicks. Almost all online sites now offer them, and they’re taking up an increasing percentage of the live tournament schedule too.

However, mystery bounties may not be all they’re cracked up to be. Here are six reasons why we need less, not more, of this sort of thing.

Money leaves the ecosystem

Progressive knockout tournaments (PKOs) have been popular among operators because they tend to spread the tournament prize pool more thinly between different players. This keeps money circulating and the games going.

If the top bounty goes to a recreational player, it’s probably gone for good.

Mystery Bounties, by contrast, may not do this. Anyone who survives into the money has a reasonable change of taking the big bounty, with pros having a far more limited advantage compared to the likelihood of getting first place in a standard tournament. If the top bounty goes to a recreational player, it’s probably gone for good.

Late registration is too strong

Recreational players also suffer from the mystery bounty format. Amateur players tend to show up earlier to get the most playing time for their entry fee, but unlike normal PKOs, the format of mystery bounties encourages max late registration to get as close to the money as possible, when the whole prize pool is up for grabs.

On many sites, there isn’t even any thought allocated to the table draw for late registration, so all late-registering players get lumped on the same table together. This increases the incentive even further, since players are likely to have plenty of short stacks on their table who they cover and can win bounties from, even if they barely limp into the money.

Collusion is encouraged

If you know that late registering at the same time as someone else is likely to end up with you both on the same table, then why not try to grind it out until the money and get it all-in against each other?

tournament structures essentially made it possible to fold into the money with plenty of stalling

This behavior was absolutely rife on 888 Poker until recently, where unusual tournament structures essentially made it possible to fold into the money with plenty of stalling. Combined with a lack of table randomization, any two players could easily take a freeroll, having both earned the min-cash.

While you can’t fold into the money anymore, it’s enormously +EV for two players with the same stack to get it in with random cards against each other, just as it is in the early stages of a PKO. In mystery bounties, with late registration and shorter stacks, it’s much easier to do so. Where does the extra EV come from? Everyone else playing the tournament who isn’t colluding, of course.

They’re less secure

All poker tournaments, both live and online, have to take security seriously, and part of good security is minimizing your attack surface – the number of different parts of your operation that can potentially be exploited.

Online poker sites have verified RNGs, so this isn’t so much of a problem, although it does still expand that surface. For live poker, however, security is a bit different. We have regular dealer changes, players can spot marked cards, we can see the decks coming out, and we can observe what everyone at the table is doing.

This isn’t the case when you go up to collect a bounty. We haven’t seen the envelopes. We don’t know who put them in. We can’t really see if any of them are even marked. We haven’t had any major scandals or accusations yet, but it’s probably only a matter of time.

The donkey work

Even online this is a frustrating experience, particularly if you’re playing a full session with many tournaments on the go at once. Live, it’s a battle of constantly craning your neck to check the current bounties, and might require you to actually be constantly leaving your seat if you’re in a bad spot to view the board. 

Now, sure, poker is a game of math, but not like this. It doesn’t involve having to check the list and do arithmetic in your head every single time you make even a preflop decision. That gets very tiresome, very quickly.

It’s not the vibe

When we play a tournament, it’s in our interest that everyone else in the room does as badly as possible. It’s a competitive, fun, social endeavor. But when you’re opening a mystery bounty, every single person is actively rooting for you to get the minimum. That’s not fun. That’s like getting it in with Queens versus Ace-King and the entire tournament field surrounding your table, cheering for an ace.?

Finally, when someone does actually pull out the big bounty, instantly removing a quarter of the prize pool from the tournament, the atmosphere in the room instantly deflates. Everyone is dejected and tilted, and the mood quickly becomes dismal. That’s not fun, either.

One per series, as a novelty, is plenty.

It’s safe to say we’ll never get rid of mystery bounties entirely. But their current level of prominence is more than enough. One per series, as a novelty, is plenty. Somewhere in the status of a “Win the Button” tournament – a slight curiosity to give us something a little bit different.?

What we don’t want to see is them taking the sort of status that PKOs have, where it becomes half of the schedule run by online operators and is regularly the format for flagship events like Sunday majors.

Perhaps at this point we should consider a radical model, and award the most money to the player who actually wins the damn thing.

The post Six Reasons Why Mystery Bounty Tournaments Are Bad For Poker appeared first on Vegas Slots Online News.

Hoisted by your own petard

At the beginning of “Trapped,” the new graphic novel featuring a fictional version of poker commentator and stand-up comedian?Joe Stapleton, we are told that the best feeling in poker is when you have a hand so big that you should slow play it. To do otherwise would be a waste, but the inherent risk of playing trappy is that you could become the one who is ensnared, hoisted by your own petard.

I could be reaching here (and I should point out that I have only read the teaser version), but I feel like Stapes is telling us something about the man behind the bombastic commentator. I feel like he’s setting the scene with this anecdote for a reason. This story is going to be a “Rounders Meets Deadpool” caper which I believe is going to have some interactive elements, but the mise-en-scene at this comic’s outset suggests to me that we are going to be delving into the psyche of the hero in more ways than one.

When you get to know Joe, and I only know him a tiny bit, you realize quickly that he possesses that mix of qualities often associated with actors, writers, and other creative types. He’s cocky and hubristic but he’s also riddled with vulnerability and self-doubt. Over his career, he has risked himself, but he also demurred some riskier possibilities.

The poker commentator

Whilst doing sone commentary together at the Irish Open, Joe told me about how one of his comedy role models Michael Ian Black once came to his stand-up and afterwards, hit him with some pointed notes. “Why don’t you talk about how you’re a poker commentator?”

It seems like an obvious thing, but Joe had avoided that subject in his routine, perhaps wanting to draw a clear separation between the two. “It’s the thing you do that is unique, that makes you different from other comedians,” or words to that effect, said Black.

Most of these guys are working these gigs trying to get noticed so they can get what I have.”

When I interviewed Stapleton six months ago, he talked about how working the stand-up circuit is strange for him. “Most of these guys are working these gigs trying to get noticed so they can get what I have.”

Like most creative industries, comedy is very top heavy with a lot of performers clambering for the spotlight in the hopes of getting a panel show, an acting role, or maybe their own special. Another out is becoming the presenter of something.

When Stapleton found poker, he found the perfect vehicle for his schtick. He knew the game and, influenced by Gabe Kaplan and Norman Chad before him, he had a strong hunch that it could be commentated on with a comedic sensibility. It wasn’t plain sailing at first but as the gigs gradually rolled in, his star rose. With PokerStars, he found a reliable job and in James Hartigan, he found the perfect foil.

No safety net

It was a spot so good and so enviable that in many ways Stapleton probably felt like he had the world trapped. His work as a comedy writer had helped develop his skills and no doubt paid some bills, but now he had a financial and creative safety net: a well-paid job for a company that appreciated him and an audience that was hungry for his content.

These days, Stapleton traverses America with a stand-up comedy show but there was a time, not that long ago, when just getting up in front of a crowd seemed daunting to him. He has spoken openly about his reluctance to move into stand-up and you can understand why. It takes a lot of guts to risk yourself in that way and more still if you already have status in something else.

Desperation is a great motivator and comfort numbs.

Safety nets are great, but they can stifle a person creatively. Desperation is a great motivator and comfort numbs. With “Trapped,” I suspect that Stapleton is going to explore these subjects, flexing another creative muscle, with plenty of self-deprecating humor along the way. He is throwing out some rope and hoping to ensnare us in the drama. I, for one, am looking forward to reading more.

You can support “Trapped” on Kickstarter. The project will be funded if it reaches its goal by October 2nd 2024.

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Franke

The first time I met Martin Franke von Zweigbergk was at a Unibet Open in Bucharest. Franke, as he is generally known, was the loudest and most inebriated man in the room, as he often is. He was on his umpteenth bullet in the side event we were playing, as he often is. After busting it just before re-entry closed, he was more than keen to reenter, as he always is. There was one problem, though: he was out of liquid funds, and his cards were maxed out, as they often are after a long day of drinking and poker.

he shrewdly surmised me to be the most likely mark

Looking around the table, he shrewdly surmised me to be the most likely mark to be able to lend him the few hundred euros needed to continue his day. I quickly agreed and handed over the cash. Franke was grateful, but then had a realization.

“You don’t really know me, and I probably won’t remember this tomorrow, so I give you collateral”

Rummaging in his pockets, he located and handed over his passport. He scurried off to re-enter, busting it with his trademark efficiency, just after re-entry closed. When I told a friend I was holding Franke’s passport as collateral, she laughed.

“You’re not holding his passport. You’re holding one of his many passports”

When I located Franke the following day and told him I had his passport, he asked how much I owed him.

The Festival Series, Franke’s baby

Franke is a man not only with many passports, but many fingers in many pies. He is probably best known as the man behind the very popular The Festival Series.

the secret sauce of The Festival Series is how they cater to lovers of mixed games

Last year, The Festival Series Malta smashed records on the Mediterranean archipelago with 50 champions crowned during a jam-packed eight days at the Portomaso Casino. The €550 ($608) Main Event was won by Oystein Brenden of Norway for €60,700 ($67,127), but the secret sauce of The Festival Series is how they cater to lovers of mixed games, embracing a cross-over with the casino games and putting a lot of thought into fun off-the-felt activities.

The Festival Series returns to Malta September 8-15 this year, having already had a stop in Rozvadov and with another on the horizon in Bratislava in November. Unibet is proud to be partnered with the event, offering package and seat satellites every week on UnibetPoker.

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Study analyzes regret and gambling decisions

Good decisions determine the long-term gambling career of each person, and a new study shows that the results may have more to do with our state of mind than previously thought.

The new study comes from Temple University faculty member Crystal Reeck, whose paper was recently accepted for publication in the journal Cognition and Emotion. The paper, titled “Reining in regret: emotion regulation modulates regret in decision making,” outlines how our memories can be reimagined to change our feelings of regret—and ultimately our gambling decisions in the here and now. The study was co-authored by Kevin LaBar, a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University.

Regret is really a great example of an emotion that can have a profound influence on?decision-making.”

Reeck, Associate Professor of Marketing and the Associate Director of the Center for Applied Research in Decision Making in Temple’s Fox School of Business, said: “Regret is really a great example of an emotion that can have a profound influence on?decision-making. With regret, we often wish we had done something differently, and that then leads us to change our approach moving forward.”

Reeck went on to say that people become interested in regret due to its profound influence on people’s behavior. Her hypothesis on the consequences of unmanaged regret speaks to how people approach wins and losses in gambling, and whether those wins or losses lead to suboptimal decisions. She added: “So, if I’m worried about a very small risk of losing a lot of money, it might lead me to avoid what would otherwise be a really good investment because I’m worried about anticipating that regret.”

Study utilized results from real bets

The study relied on more than self-reports or meta-analysis. For the new study, Reeck and her colleague asked 60 participants to place real bets where they could win or lose money. The participants were then asked to utilize two specific emotional regulation strategies: the portfolio approach, or the immediate results approach.

Referring to the portfolio approach, Reeck said: “Essentially, you’re going to win some and you’re going to lose some when it comes to making decisions. Don’t worry about that, just try to come out ahead overall.”

With the other strategy, Reeck asked participants to focus on the immediate impact of each gamble as though it was all that mattered. Participants who used the immediate results strategy were far more likely to experience regret and inhibition for their next gambling decisions. The participants overemphasized the results rather than the overall portfolio of their wins and losses. In other words, participants who used the portfolio approach still appreciated the times they won, both recognizing their long-term results and whether they could have suffered far greater losses.

when you try to focus on the gains, it is easier to not be bogged down by past regrets”

According to Reeck, that’s the approach that people should use when looking at past regrets in life, too, saying: “When people look at their past decisions like that and instead focus on the good, they see that overall, they are coming out ahead. That’s true for a lot of us. We are all going to experience some losses. That’s inevitable. But when you try to focus on the gains, it is easier to not be bogged down by past regrets.”

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Crypto poker expanding

Decentralized poker games have often been speculated as one potential use case for blockchain technology, although both players and sites have been slow to adopt it. Soon, however, players will have two serious platforms from which to choose: CoinPoker and the soon-to-be-launched Phenom Poker.

CoinPoker, which is backed by Antanas “Tony G” Guoga, was launched back in 2018, but has recently hosted a series of high-profile cash games involving streamers such as Jonathan Little, JNandez, and KakiTee. The platform has seen a slight uptick in cash game traffic as a result, but still lags well behind traditional online poker giants like GGPoker and PokerStars and has failed to generate significant traffic in tournaments.

the app has signed a host of brand ambassadors to publicise the platform

The next contender on the block will be Phenom Poker, which is scheduled to launch this year. The app has signed a host of brand ambassadors to publicize the platform ahead of its launch, including Alec Torelli, Brian Rast, Ari Engel, and Ben Heath.

The site promises a host of features at launch, including variants such as stud and open-face Chinese poker, customizable 3D avatars, and a new ERC-20 token which will function as the centerpiece of the site’s rewards system.

What makes crypto poker sites different?

Both CoinPoker and Phenom Poker use blockchain technology to operate a decentralized random number generator (RNG). This method claims to improve transparency and security, and is a key use of blockchain technology for both platforms.

CoinPoker’s site states that “Our new, decentralized random number generator (RNG) software uses input from all players at a table to shuffle the deck, giving you the power to prove the fairness of the shuffle.”

our revolutionary RNG module is impossible to reverse engineer”

“Using the same cryptographic hash function used on the Ethereum network (KECCAK-256), our revolutionary RNG module is impossible to reverse engineer. This makes it possible to safely disclose information about the order of the deck, and boost transparency in online poker.”

Phenom Poker uses a similar decentralized model for its RNG, stating: “Essentially, this algorithm allows two or more players to play a game of cards together, each shuffling, dealing, and even discarding cards without the need for a trusted third party.”

Is crypto poker really decentralized?

These systems have not been without criticism, however, and are not truly decentralized since they do not take place entirely on-chain. One notable skeptic is Jason Mo, a well-known figure in both the poker and crypto worlds.

“[The] issue is that eth and evm chains are slow, and poker hands are quick. You can’t have all people send you encrypted data in real time. They notice this and then do everything off chain”, said Mo in one of several posts on X he made criticizing the platform.

“The problem is, this defeats the purpose of a decentralized shuffle: if you do it off chain you have to trust what happens off chain.”

there is a very big reason why poker sites don’t use this model”

“You have to trust them to execute the shuffle correctly,” Mo added. “If you do or not is another story, but assuming you do, the mental poker model is not needed and just adds plaintext attack risk… there is a very big reason why poker sites don’t use this model.”

Legal Issues of crypto poker sites

RNG is not the only issue that crypto poker sites may come up against. Mo had also previously criticized CoinPoker, drawing attention to the fact that it was unlikely to comply with money laundering regulations, which could pose future problems for the app. While the site has since published a Know Your Customer (KYC) policy, the “About Us” page on the website still advertises that transactions require “no KYC checks.”

While players in certain jurisdictions where online poker is illegal have long had plenty of offshore options to choose from which have remained online, such as America’s Cardroom and Bovada, directly promoting the site as KYC-free is another matter entirely. Phenom Poker is yet to launch, but the site claims it will employ a strict KYC policy, requiring proof of age and address.

Whether Phenom Poker will have any better luck than CoinPoker remains to be seen. The product certainly has a fresher, more modern-looking user interface, and has the backing of plenty of well-known faces in the poker world.

For now, however, neither site seems likely to seriously challenge the likes of PokerStars, GGPoker, and even offshore sites like America’s Cardroom. Building a player pool from scratch is no easy affair, as Phil Galfond already found out, and the fact that CoinPoker has been around for six years shows the need for patience. For Phenom Poker, time will tell.

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The Celebrity Poker Tour will host a $50,000 tournament this Saturday, August 31, as a new range of stars line up for the fourth iteration of the show.

The tournament will be shown on the PokerGO subscription service, and also streamed live on the official Celebrity Poker Tour YouTube channel.

Basketball stars Dwight Howard, JaVale McGee, Kendrick Perkins, and Mario Chalmers will star in the event, along with other sports figures and social media personalities, including the winner of the last event, Bryce Hall.

It is not known whether she has any experience, or interest in poker.

Haliey Welch, better known as “Hawk Tuah Girl” after her explicit comment during a vox pop interview that went viral this year, will also be joining the lineup. It is not known whether she has any experience, or interest in poker.

The response to her inclusion was a mixed bag, with some users on X finding it amusing and others questioning her status as a ‘celebrity.’ Since going viral, Welch has partnered with a clothing brand, established her own company, and even thrown out the first pitch at a New York Mets game.

Given the status of most poker celebrities, however, Welch’s inclusion was perhaps best summed up by poker writer Barry Carter:

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LeForbes pleads guilty

Professional poker player Damien LeForbes has pled guilty in federal court to running an illegal sports betting operation in California and Nevada.

LeForbes, who appeared on the eighth season of High Stakes Poker in 2021, also entered a guilty plea of money laundering in both California and at a Las Vegas casino. The casino was named “Casino A” in court documents.

a fine of either $500,000 or double the gross profit or loss of the business

LeForbes could now face up to 15 years in prison, as well as a fine of either $500,000 or double the gross profit or loss of the business over the period, whichever is greater.

Illegal sportsbook took millions

The plea agreement, which was signed by LeForbes in June and filed in court on Monday, states that LeForbes operated the sportsbook from around January 2021 until the end of December.

millions of wagers from bettors around California and Nevada

The poker pro operated an affiliate scheme, bringing agents on board to source new players in exchange for a percentage of their losses. Over a period of almost three years, the operation took in millions of wagers from bettors around California and Nevada.

LeForbes moved money through a shell company named DJL, as well as cash, cryptocurrencies, and other methods such as PayPal.

Trouble for Casino A?

A casino known only as “Casino A” appears to have been crucial to the operation. LeForbes hired two hosts from the casino to work as agents, executed more than $17m in checks there, and also presented $2.8m in cash, wagering over $148m at the venue in total.

LeForbes owed $12.3m to the casino, and had also written them a bad check for $2.5m

The identity of the casino is not known, although LeForbes has had dealings in the past with Resorts World Las Vegas. An article in the Nevada Current in May 2024 stated that LeForbes owed $12.3m to the casino, and had also written them a bad check for $2.5m.

Among other major players who lost significant amounts of money at the same time was Matt Bowyer, who was also under investigation for illegal bookmaking and entered a guilty plea in a California court several weeks ago. He is tied to the betting scandal surrouding the interpreter of baseball star Shohei Ohtani.

Resorts World is also under investigation itself, with the Nevada Gaming Control Board filing a complaint earlier this month alleging the casino was allowing illegal bookmakers to launder money. Bowyer was mentioned in the complaint as one of four bookmakers, along with Edwin Ting, Chad Iwamoto, and a fourth unnamed individual, which could be LeForbes.

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