Early this morning a thread appeared on the TwoPlusTwo forums: Big News: PokerStars Purchases FTP(?) – the reaction was not serious at first but if you move a few posts down you can see NoahSD (respected poker community leader and confidant (and personal friend)), adds that the thread should be left open and possibly taken serious.

The news then followed, like wildfire:

Via PokerFuse: PokerStars Reaches Agreement to Buy Full Tilt, Settle with DOJ.

Via PokerUpdate: Pokerstars purchase Full Tilt Poker.

Via iGaming Post: Groupe Bernard Tapie fail in FTP purchase

Via PokerStrategy: Full Tilt Takeover – Tapie Group Out, PokerStars In? [+ FTP Attorney Statement]

Pokerstars buys FullTilt for a consideration of $750m, including settlement with DOJ and full balances of players (330m).I’m impressed.

— Alexandre Dreyfus (@alex_dreyfus) April 24, 2012

PokerStrategy again: GBT Attorney Behnam Dayanim Explains Situation to PokerStrategy.com

Via iGaming Business: PokerStars buys Full Tilt.

Via Bluff Magazine: Tapie Abandons Full Tilt Poker Acquisition; PokerStars Steps Up?

Via iGaming Post again: PokerStars/FTP Latest – Back in the US soon & players paid in 90 days!

Then finally on the PokerStars Corporate Blog – POKERSTARS’ STATEMENT REGARDING SETTLEMENT DISCUSSIONS

Lastly – The GBT Repayment Plan, Fact vs Fiction – via @Diamond_Flush

Its of no coincidence, in my opinion, that the rumor was launched as the Global Gaming Summit and Expo kicked off in San Francisco this morning.

So what do I suggest?

Keep watching:

PokerStars Corporate Blog and PokerStrategy’s News feed.*

* PokerStrategy’s news on FTP has been fairly consistent, first to press, and accurate over the last year as a whole.

(PokerFuse has been solid in their reporting was well.)

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Let me preface this post by telling a bit of my 2p2 story. I was lucky enough to find 2p2 from the early days I lurked for years and then finally made a post in early 2003, finding 2p2 changed the course of my life.

Literally. (To read more of how I found 2p2 read: My Poker Story here.)

I have learned a lot about the internet by watching the forum grow over the years. Under the UBB format (launched in Sept 2002), I am registered member 2620 and I believe 2p2 has well over 250,000 registered users now and has moved well beyond poker (maybe poker has moved on at the same time.)

The TwoPlusTwo community has become so big that it is mapped on the internet.

Here is what everyone frequently forgets:

2p2 is a business.

Yes, that’s right, it’s a business. And we all know businesses can do whatever they want with their properties. Which means that posting on 2p2 is a privilege, not a right, and with privileges comes respect for the rules.

While the forum is fairly free to post anything from anyone when you register you agree to the Terms and Conditions. The T&C of 2p2 is set up to protect it’s business. Looking at the T&C you can clearly see that posts made to promote businesses are not allowed.

When you have a business (and I have several) and you are part of a community (like 2p2) it’s hard not to promote your business. I have been guilty of it in the past. I know many others have as well. But in all honesty you have to be extremely naive to get banned from 2p2. They are really easy to work with. That’s right, I said it, EASY. They’ll give you warnings, they will communicate you, and when they make a decision, you have to respect it.

It’s not that hard to understand.

@twoplustwoforum spammed vlog? You nuts? My vlog appeared there for 4 straight weeks. Thread called “Daniels vlog” and can’t post a vlog lol

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) March 21, 2012

While Daniel’s Vlog has been posted on 2p2, it was posted by fans of his.. Daniel needs to stop pretending he did not know what he was doing, just read the T&C, and thank 2p2 for the warning honestly.

If 2p2 allowed posters to promote their businesses, they would lose business, two fold. Their advertisers would not pay to advertise and the forums and would be run over by spam. Daniel remembers the days of Rec.Gambling.Poker, he knows how an unmoderated forum can be run over.

It’s not that hard.

Most posts on forms of social media have an underlying motive that has to do with business or ego.

Why do you think I made this one?

Thanks for reading,
Joe

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Here are some brief notes on what I observed.

The window for Federal regulation of online poker has likely closed for now. This was the general consensus from the conference. This certainly does not mean to drop all efforts, as contacting your US Congress person to get them to support online poker is always going to be a good idea. To find out more about contacting legislators about online poker regulation head on over to the Poker Player Alliance. The PPA makes it very easy for you to contact your representation.

Why has the window closed?

1. The opportunity for Federal Regulation seemingly has passed as we are now in an election year and the lame duck session has past (111th Congress 2010).

2. The States do not want Federal Regulation. See “States want Internet gaming left to them” published during the conference.

3. State have to focus internally, as you can imagine, with current gaming regulations and bodies, including B&M casinos and Tribal authorities.

Now the race for States is on to lead the way in online poker (and gaming) regulation. See: “Nevada confident to win race to be first State to offer online poker.”

There are a good dozen or so States leading the way and that list (in no real order but some piority) includes:

Nevada, Iowa, New Jersey, California, Mississippi, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Hawaii, New York.

NOTE: this list consider states discussing lottery ticket sales online as well.

There is still plenty of talk of online poker regulation on the Federal Level. Any talk is good talk, the more in the public the subject is the better.

See this video: Fmr. Sen. Al D’Amato on Legalizing Online Poker on Fox Business last Friday, March 9th.

If I get a chance I’ll try to put up some more notes. Feel free to email me or follow me on twitter: Follow joetall

Thanks for reading,
Joe

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If you are going to out there and would like to meet up: feel free to email me or follow me on twitter: Follow joetall

I created a iCal for the conference, just simple titles and times, you can download it here: iGaming NA iCal.

Travel safe,
Joe

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Imagine: you are a kitchen appliance maker, you sell innovative machines for cooking, people use them at home.

And you can sit in their kitchen and listen to talking about your products.

Imagine: you sell running shoes, there is a marathon group that uses them.

And you can listen to the entire group before, during, and after the marathon as they wear your shoes.

Imagine: you make cookies, groups buy them and meet to discuss your new flavors.

And you can be a silent “eye in the sky” listening it to them discuss your cookies.

Online poker rooms can do everything listed above, but how?

For years online poker chat boxes have been key attractions to recreational players. The chat box is often the sole reasons for some players to keep returning to playing poker. Not convinced? People have met and married through online poker chat rooms. Just think of how many conversations have happened over online poker chat rooms, returning day after day, so much where couples are saying “I do”!

From the play-money tables to the highest stakes, the chat-box has been the source of socializing during online poker. During these conversations the online poker room and it’s products are being discussed. Players are talking about everything from how the cards are being dealt, to security, to competitors products, to what they feel and think about your brand.

This is GOLD. This is an online marketers dream. Companies pay big money for such feedback. And it’s all right there for online poker rooms, sitting in their text files of the chat rooms.

How do sites find and use the data?

First, I highly recommend listening to: Freakonomics Radio Podcast: How Biased Is Your Media? and reading the ensuing blog post for an actual example on how words become data.

I could write series of blog posts about what online poker rooms should be looking for and how they can use and analyze the data but here is short list of keywords online poker rooms can search for:

Deposit
Security
Algorithm
Rigged
Credit Card
Real Money
Gamble
Software

Online poker rooms can find conversations about these issues above, it’s all right in the chat logs! The list could go on and on to include phrases and combinations of keywords, the discussion around them, and the ideas of the customers involved in these conversations, etc, etc.

The gold is in the chat box conversations. Just got get it!

If you have any topics you would like to discuss or hear more about free free to email me and don’t forget to follow me on twitter: Follow @joetall

Thanks for reading,
Joe

Make sure you check out my previous post: Three things operators need to improve games, for more on topics like these.

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Player to player transfers opened up around 2004 (I am guessing here). I remember playing on Pacfic and PokerRoom in 2000-2003 and then Paradise and Party from 2003-2005 but I believe (correct me if I’m wrong) there were not any player to player transfers. I’m not sure who was first to implement them and I did not think too much about it at the time as I assumed it would be well regulated by the poker sites.

Then around 2008, especially on Full Tilt and PokerStars, player to player transfers were very very common. Which leads me to a personal story on how crazy the whole online poker boom of the mid-2000s really was.

After watching some football at my brothers house, my wife was driving my family home when my phone rang. It was the high-stake player, FoxwoodsFiend, who is a friend and a DeucesCracked coach. The conversation goes something like this:

FWF: Hey Joe, what are you doing?
me: Driving home after a family party, you?
FWF: Not much, you want to play some poker tonight?
me: Ummm, sure, what states?
FWF: $1000/$2000 HORSE…
me: ……………..ummmmm, what?
FWF: $1k/$2k HORSE on Full Tilt, the game is heads up right now, Eli Elezra and this crazy NL player, ASHMAN.

(At the time, ASHMAN was known to really gamble it up, this was one of Ash’s first meteoric rises to high stakes. Since then, I’ve befriended Ashton and have actually coached him in mix-games.)

me: Give me one second.

At this time, I pulled the phone down and asked my wife it was OK she watched our then-year-old daughter and explained what was about to happen.

me: Yes, I’ll play. I’ll need a transfer obviously.
FWF: How much do you need?
me: Well, I have to sit with at least 25 big bets ($50,000) and would like a little back up if it starts out slow.
FWF: OK, no problem, I’ll get you more than enough by the time you are home.

We then figured out our deal and I was set to play.

So, there I was heading home to play some of the highest stake poker that was ever played online. I had about $12,000 in my Full Tilt account at the time as I played mid-stakes online.

I got a glass of water, went to the bathroom, and sat in front of my computer. I opened up Full Tilt to find $102,000 in my account. I thought, wow, what a moment, what a unique and amazing moment.

What would my grandfather think?

What my grandfather, who lived through the great depression, grinded out nealy 40 years of hard work, scrapping and saving everything for his family, barely getting by at times, think of this?

Crazy right?

I got in there and got some good cards early, getting maximum from a few hands right away.

We played three handed for about 15 minutes which I was a bit surprised but soon after that the game quickly filled.

As sure enough, I eventually ended up in a tough spot against one of the better players. I did have the best seat on Eli and Ashton, which did me well for the session, but it was only a matter of time before I played a tough hand vs one of the other players. That is when I got tangled up with John D’Agostino, a very solid, east-coast player with a lot of stud-game experience.

Full Tilt Poker $1000/$2000 Limit Razz $200 Ante – 4 players – View hand 1641825

3rd Street: (0.8 SB)

Eli Elezra: xx xx 9____Eli Elezra brings in for $300____Eli Elezra folds

theASHMAN103: xx xx 6____theASHMAN103 folds

Hero: 9 2 5___Hero completes___Hero calls

John DAgostino: xx xx 4____John DAgostino raises

4th Street: (5.1 SB) (2 players)

Hero: 9 2 5 8___Hero bets

John DAgostino: xx xx 4 K____John DAgostino calls

5th Street: (3.55 BB) (2 players)

John DAgostino: xx xx 4 K 5____John DAgostino bets

Hero: 9 2 5 8 8___Hero calls

6th Street: (5.55 BB) (2 players)

John DAgostino: xx xx 4 K 5 7____John DAgostino bets

Hero: 9 2 5 8 8 6 Hero has 15 seconds left to act___Hero calls

7th Street: (7.55 BB) (2 players)

John DAgostino: xx xx 4 K 5 7 xx____John DAgostino bets

Hero: 9 2 5 8 8 6 T___Hero calls

Final Pot: 9.55 BB

John DAgostino shows 7 5 4 K 5 7 A (K,7,5,4,A)

Hero shows 9 2 5 8 8 6 T (9,8,6,5,2)

Hero wins $19,098.

I posted the hand on the PokerRoad forums at the time (click here), and Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, Daniel Alaei, and Isaac Haxton gave their thoughts on the hand. The hand was also heavily debated on the twoplustwo stud forum as well: Razz vs Dags.

This was one of those moments in online poker that will likely never happen again. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time and had put in the work to be prepared to play.

I can only dream of being in this situation again. Crazy right?

Thanks for reading,
Joe

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Social – Poker is a social game, it is one of the main reasons recreational players play. I’m sure the chat boxes of the play-money games are the most used and there is a reason for it, study it. The live poker scene is a testament to the social aspect of poker and there are some good things casinos do that can help online poker (I must note I feel strongly that online poker and live poker are different games and I’m making an exception here.)

Educate – Those that know or want to know will play more.

Level the field – I know this strikes fear into most operators today and I added an excerpt below about professionals, but educating players will level the playing field, well, at LEAST it will give the feeling that the field can be leveled. Not all players will perform, no matter how much the education, as execution is difficult. However, if the playing field feels like it is leveled, it will drive out fear, driving out fear will make for a much better playing experience for recreational players.

About Professionals

Right now there is a lot of anti-pro sentiment from the online poker industry. Sites are blocking data-mining, removing winning players, creating anonymous tables and making other moves in the name of “recreational” players. The problem is, these moves have nothing to do with recreational players, they have everything to do with pro player and specifically are anti-professional (not pro-recreational). The success rate of professional players, with data-mining, with software, with poker coaching, with books, with HUDs, with every tool you can imagine is LOW compared to the potential player pool. It takes a lot of work, time, and effort to play professionally. You don’t have to worry about professional players so much as you have to put extra effort into recreational players.

I started this post (over a week ago) before I found these three posts by Dominik Kofert the CEO of PokerStrategy.com. Read them here:

View: Don’t discriminate against winning players
View: The Secret Value of Winning Players
View: The Future of Poker

If you have any topics you would like to discuss or hear more about free free to email me.

Thanks for reading,
Joe

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• Facebook • Twitter • Reddit • StumbleUpon • Email • RSS ]]> http://joetall.com/blog/three-thing-operators-need-to-improve-games/feed/ 1 http://joetall.com/blog/ten-things-you-can-do-to-improve-games/ http://joetall.com/blog/ten-things-you-can-do-to-improve-games/#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:52 +0000 Joe Tall http://joetall.com/blog/?p=1790 1. Stop using the term “fish” to describe anyone, recreational to pro, regular to tourist.
2. Never berate anyone, ever. It’s just poker, next hand.
3. You dont have to talk, but if you do, be courteous.
4. Respond nicely, the recreational players are here to have fun.
5. Say “nice hand” and actually mean it.
6. Gamble it up with them now and then, they are there to gamble.
7. Relax, you might be there to make a living, but have some fun.
8. Some are there for competition, be a good sport.
9. Take the sun glasses off (esp when playing online poker. )
10. It’s a game. Games are meant to be fun. Make this a priority for the recreational player.

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• Facebook • Twitter • Reddit • StumbleUpon • Email • RSS ]]> http://joetall.com/blog/ten-things-you-can-do-to-improve-games/feed/ 3 http://joetall.com/blog/how-poker-players-think-pro-vs-recreational/ http://joetall.com/blog/how-poker-players-think-pro-vs-recreational/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:11:19 +0000 Joe Tall http://joetall.com/blog/?p=1746 Poker Pro
I have to make time to play.
I’ll take 5 buy-ins with me.
The 3 seat is great position.
No eating or drinking this session.
Wish this guy would stop chatting.
Well that was a 11:1 shot.
Called it off with J9 suited, wow.
That waitress is hot.
Getting tired, call it a night.

Recreational Player
I finally have time to play.
I’ll buy in for the minimum.
I’m lucky in the 3 seat.
I’ll have a beer and the pizza.
Wonder why he’s not responding?
Gut-shots are hitting today.
J9 suited is my favorite hand, ship it!
That waitress is hot.
Work tomorrow, call it a night.

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• Facebook • Twitter • Reddit • StumbleUpon • Email • RSS ]]> http://joetall.com/blog/how-poker-players-think-pro-vs-recreational/feed/ 0 http://joetall.com/blog/anatomy-of-a-poker-player-session-winning-vs-losing/ http://joetall.com/blog/anatomy-of-a-poker-player-session-winning-vs-losing/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:32:25 +0000 Joe Tall http://joetall.com/blog/?p=1706 Winning
I hope to play my best today.
Goal: make the best decision on every street.
QQ got the best of that Ax preflop.
I should probably play that AK differently.
*shuts phone off*
My mom is going to call, I’ll talk to her later.
He just showed a bluff, hrmmm.
Rough day today, payed well.
Hit my stop-loss limit time to go.

Losing
I hope I get lucky today.
Goal: take all the money and rub it on my titties.
Ace always hits the flop when I have QQ.
I hate AK, I always lose with it.
*makes sure phone is on*
I hope my mom doesn’t call, I’d rather talk later.
*checks text messages*
WTF F%CK TH1S SH!T, this is BULLSH!T!!
Hit my card withdraw limit, guess I’ll go.

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• Facebook • Twitter • Reddit • StumbleUpon • Email • RSS ]]> http://joetall.com/blog/anatomy-of-a-poker-player-session-winning-vs-losing/feed/ 0