Comon! I Know there's more Canadians that visit LP that know and thingor two about the Vancouver area or about coming into Canada as a self employed person!
My personal/industry thoughts on Black Friday by HeroPoker-CEO, April 17
I've spend the last couple of days reading through many forum posts and fielded many calls from those close to me and in the industry.
When I asked my sponsored pros to come on, I didn't give them a minimum requirement to play on the site because I knew that a lot of their income was derived from playing on the major sites and I was more than fine with that. The reason being was that, while they do play on Hero Poker, I respect that they need to do the things they need to do to be the best poker player that they can be, and that does mean playing on other sites, including PS and FT.
And a couple of days ago, there was really nothing I could say,
for Hero Poker, I basically said, 'yes, we're fine' and then advised them the best I could, regarding what is going on,
but the bottom line is, for many many many players, this was very unexpected. As an industry exec, it wasn't that shocking, in fact most people in the industry thought this was going to happen a couple of years before;
but at the end of the day, this is such an unimaginable blow to so many poker players who took this as a career and are from the States and it has ramifications well beyond the States.
All I can feel is a such a great deal of sympathy and just left speechless at the level of damage done to individual poker players with their own lives and bankrolls and plans and own financial security. And while people outside of poker may think that my words are an exageration, but it does feel like a poker tsunami just smacked right into the US and then suddenly all the lights went out.
I really didn't want to say much on the subject when it first happened: I don't want to fuel any flames or make any assumptions, but of course I do have my own industry perspective which may be a bit more informed that what is out there in the media. But now after a couple of days I think there is a need to address it and while people are still in a lot of shock, I'm not try to say anything to make anyone feel shittier, but because I respect the gravity of the situation and the people it affects, I'm willing to give my perspective.
The one point I'll start with is:there is a significant difference between voluntarily leaving a market and being forced to do so; one side is pre the act of enforcement, and one side is a reaction to enforcement. On one side you have the insinuated penalties that may or may not really exist/happen, on the other side you have the actual stated penalties which are trying to be actively applied to the case which now need to be dealt with one by one.
It is a hard for me to write any of this, on both a personal and professional level, but I wanted to say; this will be a long road, I can't see it being otherwise, but PS is a good company,I have always seen them do the best that can for their players. A company is a company and it is there to make a profit, but I know that Isai would never knowingly put their players at risk. Things may be beyond the control of any one individual's hands at this point, but regardless, I also do think that also this action occurred because the US is close to to legalizing online poker on multiple fronts and levels, so the DOJ needed to make a move before this actually occurred (But this is merely my assumption).
If you want to ask a question and get a proper industry response, then post the question here and I'll answer in point form. I have read many of the responses out there and most people speculating haven't even read the indictment so their opinions are simply meaningless to start with. http://www.scribd.com/doc/53107543/Indictment-DOJ-vs-Scheinberg-Bitar-Tom-et-al
If you are going to ask me a question here, then read the above first, then write it down here.
If the answer is too sensitive to be posted below then I will PM about it and be as direct as I can be.
If it puts me at risk or my company or my players, I will not be able to answer it as I have responsibilities as well.
But I'll still acknowledge that I can't answer it.
While I will not have many of the answers that you are looking for, you're going to get a response that basically a chief executive would get from his director level staff.
I'm doing this as a service to the community here at LP and no where else,
please do not link this to another poker community site,
I will take it down if that is the case.
edit: I also don't have any insider information more than any of you, but I know what is going on from an executive level point of view, so my interpretation of the same news will understand the context involved.
Would preferably like to sell all to one person for ease of transactions but happy to sell to multiple people. This could be one of the easiest sundays in a long time so i'm confident of hopefully doing well, if variance is on my side of course
so after taking some shots @ 1/2 ive decided to play some PLO. Main reasons are because im getting a little bored of holdem, but also because there is little HU action there. Also its scary that there are more supernova elites at the tables than fish.
After taking some shots at PLO, the games seem ridiculously soft compared to holdem. Not only that but i can get consistent heads-up action at .5/1. The game does seem a little hard to follow though, sometimes i'm really unsure of what the fish are capable of doing in this game. And i love bluffing using blockers in this game.
heres a graph of holdem results so far this year, mostly 6-9 tabling 6max (with 1 table of HU) I started to 16 table .5/1 with tableninja at the end and variance started to kick in.
other than poker i played some awesome indie games recently
1st game was called: dont look back. A very hard game but has a good storyline and atmosphere to it. i would recommend sticking with the game until its completed, (it takes 15minutes to play the whole game if you've played it before)
2nd game was called: iconoclasts. This game is kinda quirky, its a platformer game with some good humor in it. However the game is unfinished and stops halfway through.
It's amazing that these two games are probably the best ive played in the last 5 years, something really sucks with the game industry at the moment.
Has anyone gone ahead and cancelled their leggo/dc/blue/CR accounts already? Seems like even for none US, their content is going to be so bad that it will not be worth anything.
small live tournament streak.by wolfheart, April 17
Havent played live tournament for while, since our currency changed form eek to euro. So i gave last friday first try in 22eur and mincashed. This week i played most poular 10 eur tournament and friday 22eur tournament and got both first places. Wendstay had 39 players so i got 126euro for 10euro buyin. Friday had 19 player so i got 144 euro for 22eur.
One intresting hand happened on friday when blinds were already real high. I was chipleader and other guy who was like 2 or 3rd chips completed small blind vs my big blind. I looked down k9 and first i wanted to raise but then settled down check to play friendly. Flop was AJ3. He checks I bet blind. He knows i woulda raises a high preflop. So he talks like i better make likke control raise that u have hand and raises 1 blind more. Since i was playing real tight and showing only goods on showdown, snap called showing that i have j and wont fold, with intention to take down pot on river. Turn was Q and we check check. River T i have broadway and he shoves. What was worst play he could make with that stack. Ofcouse i snap call and he gets real pissed, calling me fish and why i call flop. I explain but he doesnt listen calls me fish and walks away angry.
at the moment i have 90% of my assets in equities, and 10% in cash for daily expenses. however i've just been thinking... is this possibly too much risk i am carrying, and would it be wise to sell some equities and get some large % of bonds instead? any insight appreciated into this. thanks.
the company men - ben affleck, tommy lee jones(drama) about bustoness so a lot of people will relate lol, watch this alone so you are allowed to cry by yourself lol
just go with it - adam sandler(chick flick comedy romance stnd) really funny as usual, nice gf flick - the kids in this film were really good child actors. jen aniston is smokin hot btw
Hey so after some long talks with friends/family etc I find that my best option atm is to move to Canada. The future of online poker in the US is very uncertain and looks very bleak for years to come.
I'm seriously considering moving to Canada with my long time friend that goes by 4TM on LP. Anyone that knows anything about the Vancouver area and can give me info around there I'll greatly appreciate~ Thinking about finding a place near UBC I hear it's pretty bumping in that area.
Also: anyone giving me info about opening up bank accounts in Canada while not being a citizen there would also be greatly appreciated!
is there any chance of filing for unemployment due to getting locked out of online poker? I just filed as a professional on my taxes and now my source of income is gone and im unemloyed, seems to make sense I should be able to collect umemplyment.
Have you guys used Click2Pay, or UseMyWallet? I did a google search with both and both times scam came up as a suggested search... Though, if they did scam, how could they be in business still?
then likely going off the grid for a long time barring unlikely good news.
it was a good run everyone, gl in your future endeavours. i wouldn't expect to hear much from me unless I win EPT Madrid and they try and pay me on stars, or um, the FBI changes it's mind.
Since all I do is get sucked out on in poker, maybe I can have a little rungood at life this week. After being threatened at work I've been looking for another job, and have my final interview with a company next week paying A LOT more than I make right now. If I get it, I'd be making more money then I could probably ever make at poker so I could finally quit this faggoty fucking game and just enjoy life, having all my finances back on track again with money to spare.
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