tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1582786560767277782024-03-05T05:40:29.236-08:00Barry Carter PokerNews editor for <a href="http://www.pokerstrategy.com/#uMYPBH">PokerStrategy</a> and co-author of <a href="http://mentalgameofpoker.com/">The Mental Game of Poker.</a> I blog mainly about the <a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/poker-media-articles-advice.html">Poker Media Industry</a> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.comBlogger279125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-80685047230742680032013-04-23T04:57:00.002-07:002013-04-23T04:57:40.164-07:00The Mental Game of Poker 2 is Now Available<a href="http://www.pokermediapro.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/MGPoker2_FrontCover_1.16.131-200x300.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="MGPoker2_FrontCover_1.16.131-200x300" class="size-full wp-image-1021 alignright" height="300" src="http://www.pokermediapro.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/MGPoker2_FrontCover_1.16.131-200x300.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>The pre-order is over and The Mental Game of Poker 2 is also now available as an ebook!</b> Click below to get a copy in your favorite format:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Mental-Game-Poker-ebook/dp/B00CH3I5QE/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1366677185&sr=1-2&keywords=mental+game+of+poker" target="_blank">Kindle</a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mental-Game-Poker-ebook/dp/B00CH3I5QE/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1366677185&sr=1-2&keywords=mental+game+of+poker" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/The-Mental-Game-Poker-ebook/dp/B00CH3I5QE/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1366677185&sr=1-2&keywords=mental+game+of+poker" target="_blank">Kindle Canada</a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.de/The-Mental-Game-Poker-ebook/dp/B00CH3I5QE/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1366677185&sr=1-2&keywords=mental+game+of+poker" target="_blank">Kindle Germany</a>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-mental-game-of-poker-2/id636784811?mt=11" target="_blank">Apple iBookstore</a>
<a href="http://www.professionalpoker.com/Category-523/1/The-Mental-Game-of-Poker-2" target="_blank">PDF</a>
<a href="http://www.professionalpoker.com/Category-523/1/The-Mental-Game-of-Poker-2" target="_blank">ePub</a>
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-mental-game-of-poker-2-jared-tendler/1113753900?ean=2940016519517&itm=1&usri=2940016519517" target="_blank">Nook</a>
<br />
<h4>
Softcover Now Shipping</h4>
Today is the last day to get one <a href="http://jaredtendlerpoker.com/shop/">here </a>for 20% off. You can also pick up copies here:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Mental-Game-Poker-Consistently/dp/0983959757/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1362447237&sr=8-3&keywords=mental+game+of+poker" target="_blank">Amazon</a> – <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-mental-game-of-poker-2-jared-tendler/1113753900?ean=9780983959755" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a> – <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0983959757/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0MWAB0KR3XJ9ZJ63HXGG&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=358549767&pf_rd_i=468294" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a> – <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Game-Poker-Strategies-Consistently/dp/0983959757/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362447108&sr=1-2" target="_blank">Amazon Canada</a> – <a href="http://www.amazon.de/The-Mental-Game-Poker-Consistently/dp/0983959757/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1362447183&sr=1-2-catcorr" target="_blank">Amazon Germany</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-54215051310375484782013-04-10T08:32:00.001-07:002013-04-10T08:32:29.444-07:001,000 International Stadiums Poker Tour Seats GuaranteedToday <a href="http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=60826.msg1752247#msg1752247" target="_blank">I announced a Blogger Freeroll for Dusk Till Dawn and the International Stadiums Poker Tour</a>. The details are below, I thought however I would explain briefly the background.<br />
<br />
I literally thought Blogger Freerolls were very underused in the
poker media. I am amazed nobody else has done a big one after the
success of the PokerStars World Blogger Championships, which is a
brilliant way to get lots of free links from perfectly matched poker
blogs.<br />
<br />
I’m not actually working for or being paid in anyway by the ISPT or
Dusk Till Dawn. I just suggested it to Rob Yong after I met him a couple
of weeks ago for an interview, and I want to support the event, so I’ve
just helped them with some of the background stuff for it. I’m doing
this as a free favour because Dusk Till Dawn is the best cardroom in the
world and has done so much for the industry I work in, I really did not
want to be paid for it. <a href="http://www.pokermediapro.com/poker-marketing-lessons-from-the-international-stadiums-poker-tour/" target="_blank" title="Poker Marketing Lessons from the International Stadiums Poker Tour">I also have been super critical of the previous incarnation of the event</a>,
something which I still stand by every word of, but since DTD have got
involved it has been very much the same as when PokerStars rescued Full
Tilt for me.<br />
<br />
<h2>
1,000 International Stadiums Poker Tour Seats Guaranteed</h2>
<br />
The International Stadiums Poker Tour is your chance to say you played at Wembley. €1 million is guaranteed to the winner. Day ones start live and online from May 11th and day two takes place at the iconic home of English football, Wembley Stadium, between May 31st and June 5th.<br />
<br />
You can qualify for free at Dusk Till Dawn Poker, where 1,000 €300 Day One seats will be guaranteed in satellites between May 6th and May 24th.<br />
<br />
To win your seat, all you have to do is:<br />
<br />
1. Visit the <a href="http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/ispt/" target="_blank">International Stadiums Poker Tour Schedule Page</a> for details on qualifying.<br />
<br />
2. <a href="http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/ispt/" target="_blank">Register an account at Dusk Till Dawn Poker</a>, where you will be automatically credited with a €2 satellite token.<br />
<br />
3. If you win a €300 day one seat you can use it online or live in one of 10 day ones being held. You can win multiple tickets as this is a re-entry event.<br />
<br />
Good luck and see you at Wembley! <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/ispt/"><img alt="211" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1057" height="213" src="http://www.pokermediapro.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/211.png" width="400" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-69449124972759787782013-03-13T09:33:00.002-07:002013-03-13T09:33:52.712-07:00The Mental Game of Poker 2<a href="http://www.pokermediapro.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/MGPoker2_FrontCover_1.16.131-200x300.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="MGPoker2_FrontCover_1.16.131-200x300" class="alignright size-full wp-image-1021" height="300" src="http://www.pokermediapro.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/MGPoker2_FrontCover_1.16.131-200x300.jpg" width="200" /></a>Jared Tendler and myself have finally put the finishing touches to our second book <b>The Mental Game of Poker 2.</b>
For fans of the first book, it is not a reboot.<br />
<br />
The first book dealt with mental game leaks like tilt. This book is all about improving your mental A-game - it covers The Zone, Learning, Focus, Decision Making, Goals, Grinding etc.<br />
<br />
It is available for preorder now for 20% off, plus an invite to a free webinar and signed copies.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://jaredtendlerpoker.com/thementalgameofpoker2/" target="_blank">Check out The Mental Game of Poker 2</a></b><br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-27166714596561502642013-01-25T12:10:00.003-08:002013-01-25T12:10:33.143-08:00New Blog URL: Poker Media ProAfter a long blog break finishing off <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mental-Game-Poker-Consistently/dp/0983959757/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1359144220&sr=8-2" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mental-Game-Poker-Consistently/dp/0983959757/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1359144220&sr=8-2">The Mental Game of Poker 2</a>,
I have returned to my blog about the poker media which I was really
enjoying writing, and a few people at least were enjoying reading. I've
decided to take it a little more seriously and make it specifically
about the poker media, which is why I have <a data-mce-href="http://www.pokermediapro.com" href="http://www.pokermediapro.com/">created a new blog</a> from scratch and transferred the relevant content from my blogspot blog.<br />
<br />
I went with the name <a data-mce-href="http://www.pokermediapro.com" href="http://www.pokermediapro.com/">Poker Media Pro</a> mainly because I wanted the words <em>poker</em> and <em>media</em> in the URL. I went with <em>pro</em>
at the end because its the shortest and therefore most memorable one I
could think of, and also because the pro part is a play on the term
poker pro, which should make it even more memorable. There is part of
me that worried that pro made it sound a bit douchey, but I'll get over
it.<br />
<br />
The two main areas for discussion on this blog will be:<br />
<h2>
The Poker Media</h2>
The
area I have worked in for the last eight years and which I feel I have
the most experience in. I started doing these blogs about the <a data-mce-href="http://www.pokermediapro.com/poker-media-advice/" href="http://www.pokermediapro.com/poker-media-advice/" title="Poker Media Advice">poker media</a>
specifically because I get so many people contacting me asking for
advice on working in the poker media and creating content, that I wanted
to document the responses I would give to save me having to write out
two page replies every time. <br />
I could blog
about all things poker like most of my peers, but this is one niche
which I feel is big enough for there to be some interest, yet to my
knowledge has little to no competition. If there is one thing I have
learned from working with <a data-mce-href="http://www.jaredtendlerpoker.com" href="http://www.jaredtendlerpoker.com/">Jared Tendler</a>
it is how powerful it is to be the only person who does what you do. Of
course the people who are interested in the poker media are vastly
fewer in number than the people interested in Jared's work, but it is
nice to have the chance to make myself the 'go to' guy for poker media
regardless. <br />
<h2>
Poker Marketing </h2>
The
other thing I get asked about on a regular basis is advice on how to
get more exposure for poker products. Marketing was one of my main roles
at PokerNews, I have had a few private consulting gigs for small poker
companies in recent years, and to date my biggest marketing success was
The Mental Game of Poker, which has sold tremendously well despite being
released on Black Friday of all dates. <br />
<a data-mce-href="http://www.pokermediapro.com/poker-marketing-advice/" href="http://www.pokermediapro.com/poker-marketing-advice/" title="Poker Marketing Advice">Poker marketing</a>
is a much more competitive niche, but I think I have discovered a niche
within the niche, which is poker marketing on a budget. We barely spent
a penny on the marketing for The Mental Game of Poker and there is so
many effective ways to reach the audience which don't mean you have to
pay for adverts or to stick a patch on Michael Mizrachi.<br />
<br />
So for those of you who subscribed to my blog, bookmark <a href="http://www.pokermediapro.com/">www.pokermediapro.com</a> as that is where I'll be doing most of my blogging from now on. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-78801385710008300752012-12-31T06:35:00.002-08:002012-12-31T06:35:55.533-08:00Poker Awards and Bluff Power 20No this blog is not dead, I'll explain why I've been AWOL for a few months shortly.<br />
<br />
2013 is going to start very hectically for yours truly. I'm proud to say I have been selected (once again) to judge the <b><a href="http://europeanpokerawards.com/">European Poker Awards</a></b>. This year alongside me are two of my genuine poker heroes, Jesse May and Joe Beevers, so I am really looking forward to it.<br />
<br />
I have also been selected (for the first time) to be on the panel of 50 to select the <b><a href="http://www.bluff.com/news/the-2012-bluff-power-20-pokers-most-influential-people-26246/">Bluff Power 20</a></b> next year. I don't consider this to be an awards system, I genuinely think its a fascinating snapshot of our industry. You only have to look at how much it has evolved in the last three years, from being quite player centric to very industry and regulatory focussed. I'm a tad nervous for the simple reason I am not as versed on the US politician side of things, but I do feel I have a few suggestions for people who have been quite overlooked in recent years - I'll share my personal 20 when I've done it.<br />
<br />
Still mega busy with PokerStrategy.com, still love the place, they really are the best company I've worked for in poker.<br />
<br />
But most of all, this has been keeping me busy, you can see what the fuss about is in April:<br />
<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-63726021967892697042012-10-10T00:20:00.000-07:002013-01-24T23:44:27.799-08:00Poker Marketing on a Budget<div>
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On the flipside of getting asked a lot about how to get into poker writing, I also find myself being asked for advice from poker rooms, players, and businesses on how to promote their brand. Editorial and marketing have always been closely linked and I would say more than average in poker, what with affiliates playing such a big part in both and the community being so small. </div>
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I've also done a lot of marketing first hand: Occasionally in my roles at PokerNews/PokerStrategy, for my own book and Jared Tendler's services, on occasions as favours to friends and on a paid consultancy basis. Usually I'm giving advice to people on a budget, since the big boys tend to have their own teams and outside consultants doing it. </div>
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This is generally what I say to people who ask me for help marketing something within poker: </div>
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<b>Don't pay for advertising:</b> If you are on a budget, I really think it is the kiss of death to pay for the bog-standard forms of advertising like print adverts or online banner ads. The human mind is now so used to seeing adverts on a minute to minute basis that it does a very good job of filtering adverts out unless they are really eye catching. This is not to say they do not work, simply that if the resources are tight then there are much more affordable and engaging ways to promote your brand. </div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);"><b>2+2 Commercial Marketplace:</b> One paid exception I would make for a lot of poker related products is the <b><a href="http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/173/commercial-marketplace/commercial-marketplace-rules-781149/">commercial marketplace on 2+2</a></b>. This is because not only is 2+2 the biggest English speaking poker community in the world, it also let's you discuss your product on the forum. As you can imagine the moderators have to fend off a lot of spam and poker entrepreneurs who start threads about their product are likely get their posts taken down quickly. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);">While a commercial marketplace listing does not give you free reign to spam the rest of the forum, it does allow you to discuss it much more freely. The commercial marketplace is not in the most visited part of the forum, but if a discussion starts about your product elsewhere A) You are much less likely to have it removed and B) You can post in the thread saying "Hi, if you have any questions check out our thread in the commercial marketplace"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);"><b><a href="http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/173/commercial-marketplace/mental-game-poker-new-book-jared-tendler-get-free-audiobook-1053407/">We have a commerical marketplace thread for The Mental Game of Poker</a></b> and we think it has been worth every penny. The cost starts at $100 a month to $1,000 for a year. </span><a href="http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/173/commercial-marketplace/commercial-marketplace-rules-781149/"></a> </div>
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$1,000 for a year really is a steal. It stays on there for a year, you can update and moderate it, and most importantly you can engage with potential customers on the biggest English forum in poker. Compare that to a print magazine ad where it will cost more than $1,000 for a single page advert, and there is no comparison. </div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);"><b>Free content:</b> I've mentioned I'm several other blog posts before but media budgets are not what they used to be. Magazines and websites are always on the lookout for free content and most will be happy to let you promote your product I'm exchange it (as long as it does not present a conflict of interest with an advertiser).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);">The content has to be genuine content and not just a straightforward advert. Therefore it should usually be on a related topic rather than a direct "buy this" call to action. <b><a href="http://www.thehendonmob.com/mike_lacey/six_max_events_live">For example in this Hendon Mob article</a></b>, tournament organiser Mike Lacey promoted his recent six max event by writing a series of columns about organising poker events. The articles were about poker events in general and only made passing references to his own event until the final signoff. </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is quite clear he had an event to promote but it is also quite clearly informative series of features which the readers will find interesting. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);">This is what we did with the Mental Game of Poker, we wrote a number of poker psychology articles and gave free excerpts to mags and websites in the early stages of the book. This was where our potential audience was already looking for this sort of content and in exchange for a hyperlink to our book, everyone involved was happy - we were happy with the exposure, the media sites and (hopefully) the audience were happy with the content. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);">The trick is to really ease off the spam. You have to first give the reader something they can appreciate on its own merit. That way they will like and trust you and hopefully want to find out more, and they will have the web address in front of them to do just that. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);"><b>Guest on shows/podcasts:</b> In much the same vain, there are tons of podcasts in poker trying to get guests to fill a show so just volunteer yourself to go on. Once again, don't just advertise your stuff and leave, talk about the issues of the day, be fun and informative, and as a courtesy the presenters will also ask you about your product. If you are ever in the London area, try and get on Sky Poker as a guest, as that is a huge opportunity and as long as you are fun and respectful of the very close community they nurture they have, it could be a win-win. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);"><b>Press release:</b> I have already written about <b><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/get-your-poker-press-release-noticed.html">putting together and planning a poker press release</a></b>, so I'll direct you to that instead. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);"><b>Plant a story:</b> A funny thing I have observed about poker media sites (and I'm sure it's the same in other industries) is that sometimes they will ignore a press release, but run the story after someone else has done it first. Poker media sites look towards each other first before they look to information being offered to them. So if you are finding your press release has not gained momentum, the next step I would suggest is taking a personal approach and trying to get a contact at a poker media site to run the story as a favour, or get (or even set up) some poker blogs to run the story, or get some friends to post the a story about it on a popular poker forum. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);">It is probably because poker media sites are much more likely to trust their peers and the poker community than someone trying to sell something that this happens. Once a story is on a major like PokerNews, PokerStrategy, Bluff, 2+2, PocketFives or CardPlayer, it is much more likely to get picked up by the rest. Not only is this because of the added legitimacy given by the site, but also because there is now more of a sense that "the poker community is talking about this" and the sense of urgency grows. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);"><b>Sponsorships:</b> I've mentioned not paying for forms of advertising and the same largely goes for sponsoring people or things. I see no value in paying to put a patch on somebody, even if they make a major final table (In fact you may find if it is a televised final table they may have strict T&Cs meaning they have to remove the patch anyway). However, if you do have a budget and really want to, learn the lesson from the 2+2 commercial marketplace and sponsor something engaging. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);">Sponsor something where you know poker players congregate and wont just ignore your branding. Forums are a great example because this is where poker players meet up and engage with each other. They don't do it anymore but Blondepoker used to have people sponsor individual sub-forums and I think this was quite good value for the sponsors. It allowed them to talk directly with community members and also put them in a positive light as most poker forums are non-profit, meaning the sponsors were viewed as helping the forum stay alive.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);">If not forums then Podcasts could be a decent alternative, the blogs of very popular poker people or community based poker events. By this I don't mean sponsor a £1,000 buy-in tournament at the EPT, I mean sponsor a £30 'meetup' tournament at DTD for a popular poker community. Something where the people involved have something personally invested in the brand, rather than a standard big money tournament with no personal involvement whatsoever. </span></div>
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<b>UPDATE 11/10 - PokerFuse Sponsored Posts:</b>
This was brought to my attention after I posted this blog initially,
but I loved it so much I've updated my post. I have been one of the
biggest cheerleaders for PokerFuse since they got going and it is for
stuff like this. They have some space on their site which most people
use for banner adds/affiliate links, but instead they have <b><a href="http://pokerfuse.com/about/sponsored-posts/">sponsored blog posts</a></b>.<br />
<br />
They
allow an advertiser to put a featured post about their product on the
homepage, and (depending on the package) change it as often as they
want. This means they can share much more information than a traditional
ad, it appears very much like a regular blog post so it is more likely
people will look at it, and the fact that advertisers can change it
regularly gives them a greater feeling of control and engagement. I
mentioned at the top of this blog that we all are preconditioned to
filter out advertisements and the fact I didn't notice these sooner
possibly suggests I had still filtered them out, but either way it is
still clearly a much more engaging way of advertising. I love the idea.
The packages are also reasonably priced, and PokerFuse have such a great
reputation in the industry (Because they proudly refuse to be an
affiliate site) that aligning your brand with them will be well
received.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7sYp_4aV7NTTTtM13Drrs0Vy6-bDYswj-ppK4kT6OeoFOsOJwtoEhZP8SWOYMtIXR_aBvimHUHy-TsI2DFNv8vDHrtK93l87qmH5-HqvogUY2eQbBBNFwy-_RPJkJ3a5JmnKaiIMrvLE/s1600/amarillo-slim.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7sYp_4aV7NTTTtM13Drrs0Vy6-bDYswj-ppK4kT6OeoFOsOJwtoEhZP8SWOYMtIXR_aBvimHUHy-TsI2DFNv8vDHrtK93l87qmH5-HqvogUY2eQbBBNFwy-_RPJkJ3a5JmnKaiIMrvLE/s320/amarillo-slim.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Social media:</b> I can't even begin to state the importance of social media, there is simply too much twitter advice out there for me to summarise here (There might be a blog or two coming however). You either need to get someone in your team to spend a lot of researching and becoming a social media expert for you brand, or pay someone to do it for you. Ideally the first one. Social media is both a marketing AND a customer service tool, and ideally the voice of your social media should be someone who represents the core values of your company rather than a paid outsider. But if you don't have time or can't get your head around it, make sure you hire someone who is both an expert in social media and an expert in poker, it needs to be a mix of both otherwise it will look disingenuous (Case in point, check out <b><a href="https://twitter.com/philivey">Phil Ivey's joke of a twitter feed</a></b>, which is clearly ran by a social media expert with little knowledge of poker). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And forgodsake ask <b><a href="https://twitter.com/kevmath">@kevmath</a></b> for a retweet. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><a href="http://poker%20media/">Poker Media</a></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-39213092584900573702012-10-08T23:57:00.001-07:002012-10-08T23:59:55.259-07:00Poker Media Tools of the Trade (What I use every day)<div>
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Recently I have found myself explaining the benefits of a number of apps, software and hardware to other writers, so here they are for the world to see. I'm sure if I look back on this post in a couple of years time it will appear horribly out of date, but right now these are the tools I use as a poker news editor, most of which are on a daily basis. </div>
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<b>A computer, a smartphone:</b> LDO</div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);"><b>Skype:</b> This one also seems obvious but I know enough people who don't use it to mention it. Most poker players use Skype in some way or other and it is the perfect tool for interviewing people. Jared and I wrote our entire book over Skype so obviously I am a big fan.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);"><b>Pamela for Skype:</b> Speaking of interviews on Skype, this is the best Skype recording software I know of. The sound quality is almost exactly how it sounded at the time and it is good enough for prerecorded podcast interviews. It runs quite seamlessly in the background and when you start a new Skype call a small pop-up will ask you if you want this call recorded. There are loads of other features including video recording, but I only use it for audio interviews. The Professional version is well worth the £25 I paid for it (The free version only records up to 15 minutes)</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><b><a href="http://www.pamela.biz/1458.html"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);">>>>Get Pamela for Skype (I get money if you buy it)<<<</span></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);"><b>Recorder app:</b> For in-person interviews, there are tons of good dictaphone apps for smartphones. The differences between each one are marginal, but make sure you get one which records for long periods as some have 15 min max durations - usually because they have a paid app with the longer record periods. Get one with good reviews and costs less than a quid or is free, I use one called iProRecorder for the iPhone which does the job fine. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);">With regards to the above two recording tools - it really is imperative that you record your interviews. Not only does it remove any ambiguity when you write them up, it also covers your back if the subject later claims to be misquoted. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);"><b><a href="http://evernote.com/">Evernote</a>:</b> A free application which is really a must for anyone, not just writers. Evernote stores written documents on a cloud basis, meaning you can log into it anywhere (Someone else's PC, your phone, tablets, a web browser) and you will instantly have all your work at your finger tips. You can also store files, images, video files etc on it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);">It is an incredibly useful tool for organising your work and your life in general. It is not as pretty as OneNote and it is not as fluid to write on as Word, but overall it is the best thing out there. I write all my drafts on Evernote and I can pick them up anywhere. Jared and I also write all our drafts for our upcoming book on a shared Evernote account. Which means when I have finished writing a section it is there waiting for him, and vice versa. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00390625);">It doesn't look easy to use when you first start, but I insist you power through that first couple of days, because it is a life saver. </span></div>
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<b>Tablet:</b> This is quite specifically for those guys that report live for poker tournaments. I just cannot see how an iPad or equivalent is not the best way report in tournaments in real-time, especially a you can stand with it from the rail. </div>
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I haven't done live reporting in a long time, but when I did, you had to stand at the sidelines of a table with a pad and pen (I know, how 2007) and then run across a card room floor, usually up a flight of stairs and round two corners to the media room, to find someone is sat in your seat, you have to log back on to your PC and by then you have forgotten the hand and your notes make no sense. </div>
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Having a tablet to hand will surely eliminate all that, allow you update very quickly, and also means you will not miss any key action while you are legging it back to the media room. </div>
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<b><a href="http://tweetdeck.com/">Tweetdeck</a>:</b> Twitter is the first place for breaking news these days and this handy programme is a great way of filtering the information that comes through. I have bespoke lists for news sites, players, industry experts and even keywords (Like black friday, mental game of poker etc).</div>
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There are lots of tools for viewing Twitter out there, Hootsuite is another one which is great if you are sending a lot of tweets for example, but I find Tweetdeck is the easiest, prettiest and most robust version available for those of us who want to consume social media in an efficient way. </div>
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<b><a href="http://www.gingersoftware.com/proofreading/">GingerIt</a>: </b>The spellcheckers that come with Word/Chrome etc are not that good for grammar, they generally just correct spelling. GingerIt is a free grammar checking tool that is good for finding the less obvious grammatical errors, repeated words etc. I have tried lots of different proofreading tools and none of them are perfect, they all miss the more subtle errors so they will never replace you doing the proof reading entirely, but the thing I like about GingerIt is that it sits in the background of your PC and you can set it to work by pressing F2 while you are in the document you need checking. </div>
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<b>Clippings:</b> If you find yourself regularly copying and pasting the same text or HTML code, clippings is a browser based way of saving lots of them so that they are available every time. I find this invaluable because working with web content I need to have a lot of complex HTML code to hand and this way I have it at the click of a mouse. </div>
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For example, at PokerStrategy.com I have a signoff for my columns, which is my name, in Italics, which is linked to a profile page with examples of my previous work. It would be a pain in the arse to have to find that page, link to it, and put my name in italics every time, so with clippings I can just right click, and it is waiting there for me to press with two clicks. </div>
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You can get clippings installed with Chrome and Firefox. </div>
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<b>Camera:</b> I've actually put this mainly because people would ask why I hadn't put this if didn't. It's great if you can get yourself a badass SLR camera that also does HD film recording etc, and in some instances (If you specifically produce video for example) you might need it. But I find that that owning a great camera these days is not mandatory. The people who require good images (Live tournament updates and magazines for example) tend to have that covered and 9 times out of 10 a solid camera phone is usually fine for everything else. The one thing I would say is that always make sure your camera, be it phone or proper one, is set to the largest picture size setting, as that way it is easy for print magazines to use your images as they need very high resolution pictures. </div>
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<b><a href="http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia-gslp.html?gclid=CISQ1MKt87ICFYXJtAodM2YA7g">Camtasia</a>:</b> This is another one that is not mandatory at all but I get guys asking me what it is. Ever wondered what software poker coaches use in training videos to film their desktop while they play? That's Camtasia. It is not cheap and I understand the Mac has a good free equivalent built in. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/poker-media-articles-advice.html">More Poker Media Advice Blogs </a></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-47951690374209600242012-10-08T09:57:00.000-07:002012-10-08T10:00:02.775-07:00Quoted in the Daily Mail Phil Ivey Story<div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For those of you currently following the Phil Ivey/Crockfords' Casino story you may have noticed I get quoted in today's feature by the Daily Mail. I got a call yesterday from them while I was having Sunday lunch and they wanted an 'expert' to help them understand how Ivey could have possibly cheated at Punto Banco. It was a mix of vanity and boredom that led me to allow them to quote me and answer their questions. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2214409/The-7m-streak-luck-Mayfair-casino-thinks-good-true.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">You can read it here</a></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After I did the interview I started to wish I hadn't, just because you hear horror stories of being misquoted, especially from the Daily Mail. It's not my favourite paper by any stretch of the imagination. For the recorded, they didn't misquote me at all, some of the words are out here and there, but the crux of what I said is there. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But even though they didn't misquote me, I have this weird inclination to back up what I said and didn't say. This is partially because I've had a couple of other mainstream media outlets asking me to speak about this story and I can see the potential for it to spiral a bit. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I started the interview by making sure they knew I knew very little about the game Punto Banco. My comments about probability, skill, edge etc were entirely in the context of house games vs poker, not specifically Punto Banco. Initially they rang me to see if Ivey could have in any way influenced the odds of a house game, which I told them he could not, based on what they reported about no evidence of tampering. I think initially they may have wanted to explore the possibility of him cheating more, but I quickly scuppered that. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The article did the usual thing of misinterpreting Ivey's results, as all mainstream media do with poker players, claiming he won £10 million in one tournament. Clearly I didn't say that as I know the Hendon Mob database very well. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'd love to know where they got their information about Ivey taking the casino to court, because I didn't mention anything and at the time of the interview they seemed under the impression that he didn't have any legal recourse. I did, however, inform them about the 2005 gambling act which now states that gambling winnings are now enforceable. Makes me wonder if they received some information about Ivey pursuing this in court, or if they just made that bit up (Cynical ain't I?).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I must say as much as I am not a fan of the Daily Mail, it was nice for them to actually defend a poker player. Most mainstream poker stories tend to paint poker in a negative light, but this time around it seems the casino was painted as the thing villain. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Later on today I got a few other requests to do interviews, including one with CNN, I turned them down. I can talk all day about poker and would have happily done it if it were more poker related, but as it really was a discussion about bricks and mortar casinos and the 2005 gambling act, I decided I was on a hiding to nothing if I did them. I know plenty about both subjects, but nowhere near the same level as I do poker. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I also didn't want to get overly linked with Phil Ivey, considering I don't even know him. I was worried I would come across as an Ivey fanboy, which I'm not (<b><a href="http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/world-of-poker/Column:-Phil-Ivey-Hero-or-Villain-_57087/">As this recent column I did on him shows</a></b>), I just don't think he cheated. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oh well, I think I got away with not looking like a berk, and I got a book plug in there too. </span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-64998542424493428812012-09-25T04:19:00.001-07:002012-09-25T05:51:05.788-07:00Lessons in Poker Book Self Publishing: What I Would Have Done Differentely <div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Jared and myself are now well under way with <b><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/get-mental-game-of-poker-for-free.html">The Mental Game of Poker 2</a></b>, the sequel to our well received first book. It may have a similar name, but it is completely new material and I think it has the potential to be better than the original.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The first book concentrated on mental game leaks - tilt, fear, motivation and confidence problems. This new book is all about playing your absolute best - the zone, A game, focus, learning etc. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The book was the most gratifying thing I've ever done and we have both been blown away by the reviews, the response, and the sales. As this blog is now very focussed on the <a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/poker-media-articles-advice.html">poker media</a> side of things, I thought I might look back in hindsight at what publishing mistakes we made and how we will do things differently this time around. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Amazon from the start</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.viziononline.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/amazon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="http://www.viziononline.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/amazon.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The biggest error we both made as fledgling authors was waiting a long time before we put the book on Amazon. We had our own standalone site with a shopping cart to take orders, and we both thought it would be a mistake to pay a cut to Amazon to do what we were doing ourselves. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This time the book will be on there from day 1. Amazon want you to succeed and they have so many in-built algorithms to get your book out there to the right people, whether it is their top ten search listings or the "people who bought this also bought this" prompts, it really is the only place you really need to sell your book.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Amazon is to books what google is to every other business. It is where people wanting to buy books go, and you have to be there from day one. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Kindle from the start too</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://weberhighlibrary.pbworks.com/f/1324314761/kindle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://weberhighlibrary.pbworks.com/f/1324314761/kindle.jpg" width="175" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We really dragged our heels with Kindle for a number of reasons, but mainly because I (Not Jared, me) was scared to death of piracy. The reality is that digital sales are reinvigorating, rather than cannabalising, the book industry. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Yes we might get some people finding illegal copies of it, but we have found that figure is dwarfed by the number of people buying it who probably would never have done pre-kindle, especially as you can also buy it for iPads, mobile phones, and your PC too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Our kindle sales outnumber softcover sales by about 2-1 at the moment, I only expect that gap to widen by the time we release the new book. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Patience</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I alluded to this in my <b><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-state-of-poker-book-industry.html">previous blog about the poker book industry</a></b>. In the early stages we would get quite anxious about why our book wasn't seeing big spikes in sales when it would get mentioned on big poker sites. We assumed that a sheer mention on a site like PokerNews should = x sales. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">What we found was that by putting some hard work in early, the book started to market itself later. Around 7 or 8 months in we saw a massive spike in sales which never decreased, all of which has to be put down to word of mouth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This time we are hoping that because we have built up a ready made audience for the first book, we should expect to see some strong early sales, but if we don't we will not fret too much about it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>All books ready for shipping on day 1</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We were in such a rush to get the books out last time we didn't have all our softcover books ready for the day people were supposed to get them (Not entirely our fault, as there was an error at the printers end). This led us to have to send a grovelling apology to many of them, which hurt double as they were the guys who took the time out to pre-order the book. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This time we have planned much farther ahead to make sure we have the book ready hopefully a full three months before our projected publication date. This is particularly important to me, as an avid book worm myself I know how quickly your enthusiasm for a book cane wane if you have to wait a long time for it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Hire a good editor</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We actually did hire an editor, but unfortunately the document seemed to have more errors after than before, so we had to get another who did a great job, but it really delayed things. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">No matter how great you are at proof reading, I think it is near impossible to proof read an entire book you wrote yourself. You have too much involvement and your mind automatically fills in gaps and overlooks spelling mistakes because you are reading it on a different level to your audience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">One big criticism self published authors get is that they are poorly edited, and this is a mistake we wont make again. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-90856712978081065122012-09-22T05:49:00.002-07:002012-09-22T06:21:44.888-07:00The Lederer Files from a Poker Media Perspective<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://article.pocketfives.com/589499-howard-lederer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="http://article.pocketfives.com/589499-howard-lederer.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The PokerNews interview of Howard Lederer
is understandably the only thing anyone is talking about right now. I
don't think I can add anything of extra substance to the unraveling
story of Full Tilt's demise, but the manner in which it was reported
does fall under my niche.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);">PokerNews
and interviewer Matt Parvis have come in for some criticism for how the
interview was conducted. In particular some of the feedback
includes not asking some important follow up questions, not asking
questions such as why Howard Lederer did not return some of his own FTP
distributions when the company needed them and generally letting Howard
control the pace of the interview.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);">I think industry expert <b><a href="http://www.billrini.com/2012/09/21/the-lederer-files-parts-5-6-and-7/">Bill Rini</a> </b>explains why this happened perfectly:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">First off, I’ve mentioned Ray and the board being in over their heads
so I should mention that Matthew Parvis is also in way over his head in
this interview. I don’t mean that as an insult to Parvis but what this
interview needed was someone who had more intimate knowledge of the
people and the business. </span></span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">There were just too many opportunities for him to ask follow up
questions that he missed because he just didn’t know Howard was making a
factually incorrect statement. For instance, as I mentioned in the
previous comments on the interview, everyone in the industry did a
spit-take when they heard Howard say that player money segregation was
not something anybody was thinking about. </span></span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">If you were in the business on the operator side or had a solid
knowledge of how online poker rooms work, you would have really nailed
him down on that. </span></span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the end, it became just a fluff, PR piece for Howard and his
allies. Howard outplayed Parvis and was able to avoid lines of
questioning that would have forced him to admit wrongdoings. </span></span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">There are so many moments where I’m shouting at the computer for
Parvis to hit him with this or that fact or to force Lederer to address a
logical inconsistency but it just flies right by with Parvis moving
right on to the next question. </span></span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Like I said, I don’t blame Parvis per se. This is the biggest
interview in the entire poker world. I don’t know if any current poker
media journalist would have been better prepared for it. It’s a tough
gig and you have to know going in that nobody is going to be 100%
satisfied with what you end up getting out of Howard. </span></span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Would a 60 Minutes reporter be better prepared? I think so. A lot
of investigative journalists would have had the money and resources to
do all of the background checking before they sat down. But, our
industry hasn’t matured to that point yet so Howard had a bit of an edge
since he already knew what he was going to say and Parvis had to try
and keep up. Howard had a year and a half to anticipate the most
burning questions while Parvis had no idea what Howard’s responses would
be. </span></span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lederer is a smart guy. It was never going to be easy to pin him down. </span></span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I mean, what color would Howard have turned if Parvis had known
Howard had intended on throwing Juanda, Perry, and Ivey under the bus
and interviewed them first so he could counter Howard’s one-sided view
of events? </span></span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">What’s that one rule they teach to trial lawyers, “don’t ask a
question you don’t already know the answer to.” That seems like a
pretty good rule of thumb for journalists as well. </span></span></i></blockquote>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i.pokernews.com/player/158-4d36fcb591ebf.jpg?b" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://i.pokernews.com/player/158-4d36fcb591ebf.jpg?b" width="143" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);">I'd
like to expand on what Bill said here. Plenty was missing from the Lederer Files but I'm not sure many of Matt's peers could have done
much a better job </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);">(Other than asking the distributions question, which I'll get to)</span>, I know I couldn't have. The <a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/poker-media-articles-advice.html">poker media</a> is too
immature to do a job this big justice. Back when Matt and I started the
only thing we reported on was "man wins poker tournament" and "wow look
at that PartyPoker bonus". All of us were suddenly thrust into grown-up
news reporting when Black Friday happened. </span></span></span></div>
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</div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);">This is the first time a <i>60
minutes </i>style interview has happened in poker. It was never going to please everyone. I'm glad PokerNews did not go too far down the other road of going in all guns blazing, calling Lederer a prick, and screaming at him asking for our money back. At least the way it was reported this way around allowed Lederer to be himself (Or at least the Lederer he wanted to portray). </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);">Earlier
this month I blogged about <b><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/how-do-poker-media-websites-make-money.html">how poker media sites make money</a></b>, and this
is also a telling factor into how something like the Lederer Files was
reported. There is no budget for investigative journalism and little
opportunity to make much money from such a big exclusive. PokerNews probably made a loss on
the interview as a whole, the traffic it brought in was unlikely to have compensated the expenses and man hours needed to produce it, so it was unlikely they had much time or resource to
research ahead of time. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);">Back to the subject of missing out one of the most important questions; why didn't Howard give back some of his personal FTP distributions to help the site? I actually assumed that Howard had some editorial control over part of the interview and what was asked (In exchange for giving the interview in the first place). I was surprised to hear in a blog post <b><a href="http://www.pokernews.com/news/2012/09/the-lederer-files-the-process-and-opinions-13465.htm">just released by Matt Parvis</a></b> that this was not the case, they had full control and it was just a sheer oversight by him. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);">If
I had been charged with the task of interviewing Howard the first thing
I would have done is give the job to someone else and helped out behind
the scenes instead. Matt is one of the bosses at PokerNews, he doesn't
actually produce the content day to day, and this is perhaps the reason
why he should have delegated it elsewhere. But hats off to him for
taking on the toughest job in poker journalism and no doubt protecting
his own staff in the process. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);">I
personally would have invited a real expert in this story to do this
job, possibly bringing in a partner from outside the company. A Diamond Flush, a Noah SD, the guys at PokerFuse, or my
PokerStrategy colleague Matt Kaufman. If that wasn't possible I would
have at least crowd sourced my questions and research with industry
experts outside of my company (which I am sure is what happened to some extent). </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);">If
Howard does do his proposed follow up interview with 2+2 we might get
the interview we wanted (I have a feeling that won't happen, hope I'm
wrong). Even though it was flawed we still got <i>something</i> from PokerNews here.
We know a lot more about Howard and the FTP story than we did a week
ago and other than the one key question (at least for me) that was missing, I'm not sure many of my peers would have done a significantly better job. </span></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.004);"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/poker-media-articles-advice.html">More Poker Media Advice Blogs </a></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.00390625);"><br /></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-20563981867830000842012-09-13T02:28:00.000-07:002012-09-13T02:32:42.414-07:00Guest Post from Matthew Pitt: Do You Know Your SEO From Your Elbow?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/392315_10150990330941608_648019115_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/392315_10150990330941608_648019115_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Matthew Pitt (With PokerNews buddies)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>I must be doing something right, because I finally have a guest post on this blog (There is actually another one in the pipeline too). The man who took over from me at <b><a href="http://uk.pokernews.com/">UK PokerNews,</a></b> <b>Matthew Pitt</b>. He has had a lot of interesting writing gigs in poker, and he knows a boat load more about SEO than I do.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>You can learn more about Matthew Pitt at <b><a href="http://matthewpitt.co.uk/">his blog</a></b>. (Did I link to it correctly? SEO donk here). </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Thanks to Matt, and here he is:</i><br />
<br />
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As someone who has worked in the poker industry for several
years now I thought it would be a good idea to write a guest post for Barry
Carter that fits in with his series on <b><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/poker-media-articles-advice.html">poker media industry</a></b> articles. </div>
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Barry recently wrote an article entitled “<b><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/how-do-poker-media-websites-make-money.html">How Do Poker MediaWebsites Make Money?</a></b>” and within this article he mentioned terms such as
pay-per-click and touched on the subject that a writer's employer may not care
much for the quality of the content a writer produces because he is looking
purely at how many customers click a specific link within the content provided.
One way you can help your articles become more useful to your employer is to
employ some basic SEO, that is Search Engine Optimisation, to your content.</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.opace.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/diy-seo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="114" src="http://www.opace.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/diy-seo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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The first thing you need to realise is that, in the poker
industry especially, Google rules the world. Forget all the rubbish Bing and
other search engines try to push on you about them being the best search engine
or the most accurate etc Google is the daddy, the head honcho. You are at the
mercy of Google and its unknown search algorithms. You are Google's bitch. You
no longer search for something on the internet, you Google it; so does your mum
and possibly your gran. Google makes the world spin around and being ranked
number 1 in Google for a specific term is like holding the Holy Grail in your
hands. Think about it. How often do you Google something and simply click the
first answer without even looking or thinking about it? Exactly.</div>
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The way Google works is down to a number of secret
algorithms that work in unison to create an extremely powerful search engine.
Regardless if you think it is the best, the most accurate, the fastest or
whatever, Google is the industry standard search engine. Although these
algorithms are top secret, there are a few assumptions you can make about how
Google works and how it ranks content it finds on the world wide web. </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><br />
<ul>
<li>Google loves new, fresh content</li>
<li>Google knows how to read <b>bold</b> and <i>italicised
</i>text.</li>
<li>Google likes it when content links to other
highly ranked content</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Google is happy when your article has some
relevant keywords naturally occurring in your content</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Google smiles when your headline is related to
your content</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Google gets mad when you blatantly copy other
articles</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Google starts to cry when you link to poor
ranking content</li>
<li>Google does not like you trying to force readers
to click links</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Google gets royally pissed off when you try to
force keywords down readers throats</li>
</ul>
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There are scores of others but those mentioned above are
probably the most common and the ones you have the most control over. As you can
see Google is almost like a living, breathing entity that adapts and evolves to
bring what it determines is the best content for a person to read, watch etc.
It is up to you (and your editor) to keep Google happy.</div>
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One of my first jobs in the poker media was to provide copy
based on keywords. For months on end I used to churn out articles for some
major sites based on keywords I had been given. For example, I would be asked
to write a 400-word article about anything I wished as long as it mentioned
“poker bankroll management” at least five times somewhere within those 400
words. Sometimes the keywords were perfectly reasonable but then they started
to become a little obscure. I distinctly remember having to write a 400-word
article that said “poker play online free” at least eight times. You try and fit
that non-English rubbish into an article once never mind eight times. I bet
Google hated those articles!</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://wirelessdealertraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/SEO-Tools.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://wirelessdealertraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/SEO-Tools.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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After writing between 500-750 of these I now automatically
think of keywords whenever I am writing articles, whether the articles are news
related or promotional material. A large percentage of the articles I write are
poker-related and I know dozens of keywords and phrases that people use to
search for other poker related material. In recent weeks I have described
someone being dealt pocket aces as “Player A was dealt the best starting hand
in Hold'em, pocket aces, and three-bet all-in” or something similar. That small
sentence will rank in Google for terms such as:</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>What is the best starting hand in Hold'em?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Are aces the best Hold'em hand?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>How to play pocket aces</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>How often will you get dealt pocket aces?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>What is a three-bet?</div>
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Those five bullet points are all valid questions Joe Bloggs
could type into Google and find my article with. Hopefully he will then read
the rest of it, click a link to an online poker site and keep my bosses happy!</div>
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Emphasising your text by making it bold is another way to
ensure Google picks up your content. At PokerNews I always write a player's
full name in bold in news articles and keywords in bold in promotional
articles. For example, “Get involved in this <b>value-added</b> promotion where
we have <b>six freerolls</b> each with a <b>$5,000 prize pool</b>.” Google will
read the bold text, think it is important and if someone searches for keywords
such as “value-added freeroll” or “freerolls with large prize pools” guess
which article it is going to bring up or at least consider bringing up for
searchers.</div>
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By now you have probably cottoned on that SEO is mainly
common sense and that continues when you want to link to other content. When
you link to a specific article, particularly one that is not hosted on your
site, Google goes all warm and fuzzy inside because you are essentially
vouching for that site and spreading the love. If that site has linked to other
“good” sites and they are themselves linked to then Google gives you some extra
points (in secret of course) and ranks you higher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why I get frustrated when sites copy
my work or use it to create articles of their own and do not credit me. I have
written articles in the past that were exclusive to me yet they have ended up
on a rival site a few hours later and complete with spelling mistakes! Had they
copied it and said, “according to UK PokerNews” with a link to the original
article Google would have been over the moon and given them a hug. Instead
Google will have marked them down for being plagiarisers and possibly future
articles they write by themselves will be marked down too. I give credit all of
the time whenever I use a site such as Blonde Poker or the PokerStars Blog for
tournament reports and live updates. Give credit where it is due.</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://sme-blog.com/files/2010/02/SEO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://sme-blog.com/files/2010/02/SEO.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Last but not least, and following in the same link-related
vein, is linking to content naturally. Whenever you link to something you want
downloading, reading etc you have to try and make Google you are just
suggesting your reader should click. Terms with links in such as “click here”
or “read more here” do not impress Google because you are essentially forcing
your readers to click a link. What if they didn't want to click a link and they
just wanted to carry on reading your article? You are now dictating to your
reader what they have to do. Not good. </div>
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Imagine you are writing an article about Jake Cody going
deep in yet another tournament and whilst talking about him you happy to
mention he is a Triple Crown winner. “Jake Cody, one of only four Triple Crown
winners, has once against gone deep in a PokerStars.com European Poker Tour
event.” I happen to know that I wrote an article when Cody completed his Triple
Crown so I can link to that article by using the keywords “Triple Crown.” This
merely suggests to the reader that if they click that link on the words “Triple
Crown” they are going to be directed to another article about the said Triple
Crown. Doing so makes Google so happy that it does a little dance. You should
see what Google does if you provide a natural link on a certain keyword that
has bold text; I think when this happens a fairy gets its wings. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The ins and outs of SEO can be quite complicated and much of
SEO is theory. Nobody knows the algorithms Google uses so it is all trial and
error but by following the hints and tips above you should be able to keep Google
happy for the time being and if Google is happy with you then your boss usually
is too.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/poker-media-articles-advice.html">More Poker Media Advice Blogs </a></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-33052010098897619872012-09-11T11:31:00.001-07:002013-01-24T23:44:11.248-08:00How Do Poker Media Websites Make Money?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.gaming-awards.com/NEWS/wp-content/themes/wp-clear/scripts/timthumb.php?src=http://www.gaming-awards.com/NEWS/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Online-poker-traffic-down-36.jpg&w=400&h=300&zc=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://www.gaming-awards.com/NEWS/wp-content/themes/wp-clear/scripts/timthumb.php?src=http://www.gaming-awards.com/NEWS/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Online-poker-traffic-down-36.jpg&w=400&h=300&zc=1" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">How a <a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/poker-media-articles-advice.html" target="_blank">poker media</a> website gets paid, just like any blog or news site,
has a direct impact on the content they produce. If you are looking to get into
poker writing, you need to know how your potential employers are paying the
bills and create your content to fit that model.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">I know a lot of great writers, much better ones than I could hope to be,
who were unable to make a go of poker writing because they didn't understand
this simple fact. Often the thing they don’t understand is how what they write
could upset a potential advertiser; which is unfortunately the biggest
tightrope walk we face in this industry.<br />
<br />
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">I learned the hard way how important understanding the advertiser is in
poker. When the Absolute Poker scandal first materialised I proudly was one of
the first people to get the story onto a news site, reporting on it when I was
a staff writer for PokerNews. Because I hadn't been paying attention to the
site I worked for, I didn't notice that Absolute Poker were, at the time, one
of our biggest affiliate partners. The management team were not happy with me,
they pulled the article, and I almost got fired.<br />
<br />
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Luckily for me the story got huge pretty quickly anyway, PokerNews
dropped Absolute Poker from their affiliate partners soon after and republished
my original article quite quickly. I think all that was enough for me to keep
my job, but an important lesson was learned. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Now a lot of people might say that I was right and the management team
at PokerNews (It was a completely different management team to the one in place
at the moment btw) was wrong. But in hindsight I would side with PokerNews on
this one - don't bite the hand that feeds. People who cry about journalistic
integrity are the exact people I mentioned before do not make it very far in
this industry. I too strive to to write honest unbiased work, but I also
appreciate that without advertisers, none of these sites, and jobs, would
exist. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">That doesn't mean that everything you read is bullshit on these sites,
far from it. There has been a significant move towards transparency in the
poker media, particularly after Black Friday. But you need to understand how
these sites make money if you want to work for them. Likewise if you are just a
reader of these sites, I hope the following will help you understand why
certain things are reported on and others are omitted from front pages:</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.parua.co.uk/internetmarketingblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ppcmakescents.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="http://www.parua.co.uk/internetmarketingblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ppcmakescents.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">Pay per click/pay per impression</span></b><span style="color: black;"> - Websites which are paid by the
number of page views they receive are a staple part of the online news industry.
They tend to get paid a small amount by advertisers for every user that clicks
a link, or for every thousand page views.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">I mention this advertising model first, because this is precisely what
99% of poker sites DON'T rely on, but many people assume they do. As a result,
this has a profound effect on the content.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Blogs that rely on page views are much more sensationalist and prolific.
It is in their interest to be the first to break news, expose scandals, and
produce a lot of new content every day. Even the biggest news blogs only get
something like $4-$12 per 1000 page views. So as you can imagine, they need big
controversial stories every day to get millions of hits in order to make it
worth their while and employ staff.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">This model is good in one sense, because scandals would not get swept
under the carpet. It is very bad in another sense because it encourages sloppy
work, that is rushed out quickly, not fact checked, and sometimes is straight
up lies. If poker went this way, even more cheating scandals would be exposed,
but we would also see some really slimy gutter reporting, personal attacks, and
unsubstantiated rumours being presented as facts. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">The poker market is simply not big enough to attract the type of page
views needed to make good money, which is why most poker sites rely on the
affiliate model.<br />
<br />
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Affiliate-Marketing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="118" src="http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Affiliate-Marketing.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">Affiliates -</span></b><span style="color: black;"> The poker media is built on the poker affiliate model. All the big
media sites you see today have got where they are from poker players signing up
to online poker rooms via their affiliate links. They usually get either a one
off fee for each new player who signs up, which is called a CPA (Cost Per Acquisition),
or a regular percentage of the rake they pay to that poker room called MGR (Monthly
Gross Revenue). CPAs are much rarer these days, although PokerStars exclusively
still do it this way. Most of the big poker media websites have hybrids of both
models.<br />
<br />
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">The nature of the commission model may give a slight insight into what
to expect from the content. In that those on primarily MGR models are more
likely to have content that retains readers - so community based stuff, forums,
interactive content etc, as well as regular strategy content and other stuff
designed at keeping players at the table. With CPAs it is slightly more about
attracting a reader and converting them; so possibly more of a standard news
blog model could be expected. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Because sign ups, instead of page views, are the fundamental criteria
for making money, the nature of the news reporting changes. You don't need to
be as attention grabbing or prolific, but you do need to be constantly
directing readers back to your download pages. So although you don't have to
worry about printing garbage to rely on hits to your website, you do run the
risk of being too spammy with the content you do produce.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">This causes two potential problems for a poker writer. First of all, no
matter how good the content you write is, your employer might be looking at it
in ROI terms, rather than how well written it is. Most poker content like
tournament reports, strategy articles and interviews are in theory non profit
exercises for the site. In the long term, this of course not true, it is the
quality content which gets people on your site in the first place and coming
back for more. But you will often find yourself in conflict with the affiliate part
of the site over what content is important. Likewise, a lot of poker content,
although presented as genuine news, is actually glorified ad copy for your
partners. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">The other big problems for poker writers with the affiliate model is
exactly what I described with my Absolute Poker story, and that's you have to
walk a tightrope of producing good content while also keeping an affiliate
partner happy. Writing a story that puts an online partner or one of their
sponsored players in a bad light is a big no no. Another problem can come in
the form of writing about a poker room which isn’t one of your affiliate
partners, positive or not, because it can essentially give them free
advertising. The same goes for linking to a direct business rival, ie. another
affiliate site. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">These days the biggest sites are less biased as I might make it sound, I
am simply outlining what some of the barriers can be. Today there is a much
better culture of covering the important stories no matter what potential
conflicts could arise, as well as giving proper citations to potential rivals,
among the biggest sites. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">There are some other variations of the standard affiliate model worthy
of a mention:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">Super affiliate</span></i></b><b><span style="color: black;"> -</span></b><span style="color: black;"> Some poker
media sites choose to advertise one poker room rather than a selection. This is
usually because they have an enhanced deal with that room, and an agreement to
provide some exclusive content. Usually the media site will have an exclusive
bonus, freeroll, or other promotion that will encourage players to sign up, as well
as an increased commission; both of which is enough to justify them not
advertising other partners.<br />
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</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Super affiliate deals usually involve some heavy restrictions on what
content the site can produce, and even involves the poker room having some
editorial control over the content. As you can imagine, this leads to some
heavy biases in the reporting. A PartyPoker super affiliate is obviously not
going to be allowed to cover PokerStars news, and might even restrict coverage
of the something like the EPT (as Party have the WPT) and vice versa.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">In many cases, some big affiliates have a hybrid of a super affiliate
deal, in that they can still advertise other rooms, but give priority and
editorial exclusives to one major partner room.<br />
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</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">Rakeback sites</span></i></b><span style="color: black;"> - Rakeback
sites understandably operate on an MGR basis, since they give most of what they
receive straight back to their players. The only reason I mention them at all
is to point out that the nature of these sites means that their profit margins
are very small, and as such, you rarely ever see a massive editorial presence
on them.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">Sub affiliates</span></i></b><b><span style="color: black;"> -</span></b><span style="color: black;"> Some poker
affiliates are so big that they actually give smaller websites the opportunity
to advertise their poker rooms for a split of the profits. Although this means
smaller profits for the lesser site, it can work out better sometimes because
it means they can offer some of the same exclusive promotions, bonuses, and
freerolls that the bigger affiliate can boast. PokerStrategy actually have a
superb sub affiliate programme btw.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">Non poker room options</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"> -</span></i><span style="color: black;"> There are of course other potential
ways to get affiliate revenue from poker other than by signing up to a room.
Books and software like Hold'em Manager being probably the main two. I doubt
anyone makes significant revenues from these because they would take a lot of
volume to do so. Online poker room CPAs can be several hundred dollars each and,
if you get lucky with the player, a single MGR could land you thousands a
month. So poker room affiliates are the
bread and butter of the poker media and the other potential affiliate options
are just supplements to their revenue.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">Paid advertisements</span></b><span style="color: black;"> - It is still not uncommon for some
advertisers to simply pay to have banners and other advertisements on the site
for just an upfront fee. This will often happen when the advertiser has no affiliate
plan in place, ie. things like live poker events, live casinos etc. You will
also see certain aspects of the website get unique sponsors, for example some
podcasts have seperate sponsors, as do some live tournament reporting ventures,
forums etc. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">Editorial placement</span></b><span style="color: black;"> - Now on to stuff that perhaps isn't as
obvious. Since most of us have in-built mechanisms to mentally filter out
adverts these days, media and advertisers get together creatively to make
adverts more widely seen. Instead of posting a banner somewhere, they will
actually place an article that appears to be genuine news on the site, which is
in fact a sponsored post. In some instances these will be highlighted as such,
being called "sponsored posts" or some such, but most of the time
they are not, and essentially disguised as real news. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Now, more often than not, you don't need a particularly sophisticated
spam radar to recognise which ones are the "advertorial" pieces.
Usually editorial placement is for a one off fee, or part of an enhanced media
package/affiliate deal agreed with the website. </span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/attachments/026/press_release_distribution_0260276_49155.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/attachments/026/press_release_distribution_0260276_49155.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">Poker room blogs </span></b><span style="color: black;">- A lot of the poker media we see today
are actually blogs created and run by a poker room, so their revenue comes
directly from getting the readers back onto their site. PokerStars and
PartyPoker both come to mind as having pretty good content (Especially live
tournament related content), and of course Sky Poker have a fully fledged TV
channel to support their room. I would advise any fledgling poker writers
to keep an eye out on poker room blogs, as they are fast becoming a great new
place to find work. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">Training Sites</span></b><span style="color: black;"> - One of the more recognisable commercial ventures in
poker is the training site. A lot of media sites are now producing paid
subscription training content, and likewise, a lot of training sites are now
producing their own editorial. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">B2B Services</span></b><span style="color: black;"> - Established poker media sites tend to have their fingers in a
lot of pies, and as such, they now tend to offer a lot of Business to Business
type services. It is becoming more common, for example, for them to outsource
staff for things like editorial, live reporting, video production to other
poker organisations. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It is also very common for them to have their own wing specalising in PR
services, which can involve press releases, social media, consulting, and
utilising their vast reader databases for email marketing. Most of the time,
they can offer a bespoke PR package which can involve lots of the things I have
mentioned in these blogs for one up front fee.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><a href="http://poker media">Poker Media</a></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span> </span></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-82166411513468932742012-09-03T08:07:00.002-07:002012-09-11T11:37:15.814-07:00The State of the Poker Book Industry<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I recently heard my friend and poker hero Tony "Tikay" Kendall (For those that know us both, that is not a piss take, he genuinely is someone I look up to) is planning to write a book. I have no idea whether it will be poker related, but I for one will be buying it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The whole thing got me thinking that for all the <span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/poker-media-articles-advice.html">poker media advice</a></span> I have been writing on this blog, the one thing I haven't really discussed is poker books. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I have written a poker book, in case I haven't spammed it enough already, I am the co-author of <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/get-mental-game-of-poker-audio-book-for.html">The Mental Game of Poker</a></span> with Jared Tendler. It was one of the hardest, but most enjoyable and gratifying things I have ever done. I'm delighted to say it has been both a critical and commercial success for us, and we have just started part 2 (It was always going to be a 2 parter). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In the two or so years between starting the book and now, we have learned a tremendous amount about the poker book industry, a lot of which was as a result of throwing ourselves in the deep end and making mistakes. The following is pretty much what we have learned so far about the poker book market:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Strategy strategy strategy</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Cla1I52RL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Cla1I52RL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Most poker books that are sold are understandably strategy books. There isn't a massive demand for anything else unfortunately. Generally speaking, poker players are not a target market I class as great readers of books outside of this genre, I have probably let years of seeing them type "TLDR" in forum posts skew my image of them in this regard. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">There are of course some exceptions to the rule. Anthony Holden's "Big Deal" and Michael Craig's "The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King" are two very enjoyable non-strategy titles which have enjoyed, as I understand it, good sales figures.There are some good biographies out there, but generally they have never been big sellers. I'd expect a Negreanu, a Hellmuth, or an Ivey biography would sell well, but beyond that I think the life stories would have to be fascinating to be a big success. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">To get reasonable sales figures, I think a non-strategy title would need to have a mainstream appeal outside of poker. A Full Tilt, Black Friday, or an UltimateBet Superuser book all spring to mind. I think there is also the slight potential that some 'Funny gambling stories' books could be a profitable subject matter (I myself have started, and stopped, writing 'poker's greatest prop bets' several times).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Back to strategy. It is a very tough market. Despite being the only thing poker players really buy, it is tremendously competitive, samey, and quickly goes out of date.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Traditional no limit strategy becomes dated very quickly, and books are in competition with forums, training sites, and coaching, as well as with other books.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Having read tons of no limit books, it is very hard to filter out the nuggets of difference between each title or find anything truly unique. It is particularly frustrating when poker books trawl through the same old 'hand rankings/explaining position' standard stuff we have read a thousand times already. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">For a no limit book to stand a chance to be lucrative, it has to be vastly different, or more likely, has to be penned by a mega star of the game. And when I say mega star, I mean like Sam Trickett, Phil Ivey, Isaac Haxton, Jungleman, Isildur1 - someone who is either a household name or at least universally respected by their peers. There are so many good players out there these days that 99% of the good pro players would struggle to sell a book. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Differentiating from no limit</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">For any other poker strategy book to sell well, it has to deviate from the norm. This is an area where I got very lucky hooking up with Jared Tendler - a mental game expert who essentially teaches something nobody else does in the game. I simply would not have got involved if it was instead just some guy who was crushing no limit hold'em, because even if it turned out to be a great book, it has a limited shelf life and lots of competition. Jared's work has no competition and (hopefully) is the sort of thing that could sell for years no matter how the game changes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So what else could sell in the crowded strategy market? I think we are due a good mixed games book for the modern era, and stud, 2-7 draw etc all could have a shot at selling well. One thing I think has been vastly overlooked so far is a strategy book for winning poker satellites. PLO still could sell, but that's getting competitive too. There is probably a decent short-stacker book waiting to be written, but there is plenty of information out there online for that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Then you have some really left of field titles that zero in on one aspect of poker skill. Books like Dusty Schmidt's Treat Your Poker Like a Business, which is more of a self management book than a strategy book, and of course the titles on physical tells and poker maths. I think there is possibly a (small) book out there on game selection waiting to be written. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Making money from poker books</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I've mentioned getting good sales figures, but what constitutes 'good'? The following figures I have got from some fellow authors and publishers in the poker industry. As I understand it, a good lifetime figure for a typical poker book (And by that I usually mean strategy book) is about 10,000 sales. That was at the height of the poker boom. 20,000 is considered exceptional. The average book in any industry or niche only expects to make $500 in sales these days, so if you think those figures are small, think again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">There are some books that comfortably surpass the 100,000 sales mark, but these are usually the real classics; SuperSystem, the Harrington books, the Theory of Poker, Gus Hansen's book, and probably a few other twoplustwo titles. The above titles are still selling very strong today despite being relatively old in the market (You can tell by looking at their sales rank on Amazon) so for the truly exceptional titles, they can prove a great long term winner. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">But most poker titles won't continue to sell after a few years, because they date so quickly. One way around this is pricing. Poker is one of the few niches where you can charge over $1,000 for a single book and people will buy it. You can still buy Tri Nguyen and Cole South's "<span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Let-There-Be-Range-Crushing/dp/0982402252/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1346662724&sr=8-8&keywords=tri+nguyen">Let There Be Range</a></span>" for $1,500+ on Amazon. This is because bridging a knowledge gap in poker is perceived to be much more immediately damaging to the author than in other industries. Selling such a book for such a low price, it could be argued, could have an immediate negative impact on the authors earn rate if the wisdom within it is so good it could turn the readers into the new Isildur1. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In reality, pricing the book so high is really a short term strategy designed to make a quick buck (No pun intended). It is actually more of an insurance strategy against the content getting outdated than it is a way of keeping the knowledge within a select few. When you price your book that high, you are basically asking for people to pirate it. All you are hoping for is that 30, 50, or 100 people buy it before every poker player has it emailed to them. Ironically setting a price so high probably guarantees more people see it than they would have otherwise. To stand a chance of getting a large number of people buy your $100+ book, you have to be truly crushing the game (Cole South was at the time) and these days only a handful of players can claim that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Self publishing</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">But what about those of us who are not crushing the game, and essentially just want to write a book? Well first of all, I'd hope seeing the above has shown you there is some merit in offering to ghost write a book for a big name who wouldn't have the time or inclination to do it themselves. Secondly, I would suggest that you almost certainly should self publish your book. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Although the potential to write a poker best seller is not great these days, we are living in a wonderful era for self published authors. Getting your book on kindle takes a few minutes, and you now have so many print-on-demand options that getting soft cover copies of it is also very cost efficient. The biggest thing that publishers can offer these days are exposure and potentially a cash advance. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The advances I expect would be very small in poker, if they even exist at all any more, and after that you would likely only get something like 10-15% royalties AFTER your advance has been recouped in royalties. This is fine if you have no way of marketing your book on your own, but the poker world is exceptionally small, and if your book is good, people will hear about it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Build a ‘tribe’</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">There is a little maxim here which suggests you only need 500 people to love your book in order to make it a success. After that, word of mouth will sell it for you. This is what Jared and I have discovered with our book. We marketed very hard between the book launch on April 15 2011 (Yes, we released the book on Black Friday, sigh) and the end of the year for the Christmas rush, then we put the brakes on. Our biggest month at the time was Christmas, as you would expect, but after that we expected a drop in sales, because we had stopped actively marketing it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">But the strangest thing happened, January 2012's sales were almost as big as Decembers. February's sales were big too, and March, and so on. In fact June this year was our biggest month ever and it has seen no sign of slowing down. As soon as we stopped marketing our book aggressively, our sales have been at least 50% higher than every non-Christmas month in 2011 where we worked our asses off marketing it, and in some cases it has been 100-200% higher. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We still do the odd bit of marketing here and there when a good opportunity comes up, but the reason the sales have been high since we stopped is because enough people have the book now to be talking about it. Every week I get people asking me questions or telling me what they think of the book on forums or on twitter, and on the occasions where I myself will tweet something about the book, I can always expect a reasonable amount of retweets from fans of the book. In fact, there have been a handful of people who loved the book so much that I feel we owe them a commission for promoting it for us for free. We are lucky also that quite a few influential figures in poker like the book, so when they do retweet or otherwise complement the book, they do so to a large audience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Word of mouth is genuinely the most powerful form of marketing in the world today, now that everyone has a twitter, Facebook, and poker forum account. For that reason, I would advocate all poker authors self publish their books and just concentrate on building up a small following, and giving that following the chance to talk about your work. I think one of the best things we did was engage with everyone our audience on twitter and Facebook and develop relationships with the people who really liked the book. The poker forums are also golden, possibly better than social media, and I think we owe a lot to the likes of Blondepoker, the PokerStrategy forum and 2+2 (The only paid advertising I would advocate is the latter's commercial marketplace). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Beyond that, another easy way to market your book is by offering free content and excerpts of the book to blogs, websites, and magazines. As I have mentioned in several previous blog posts, poker editors are always on the lookout for free content and will happily let you promote your book as part of a free, non-spammy, offering. It is much more effective than having a paid advertisement ever will, because not only do most of us filter out adverts when we see them, but it also gives your target audience a great sneak peak of what they can expect, with a direct call to action for where they can go to get more. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Business cards</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Even if the book doesn't sell well, there is another advantage to writing one, and that is it serves as a great business card. Interest in Jared's private coaching skyrocketed as has his personal brand in the industry. He is a very well known and reputable name in poker as a direct result of the book. I myself have seen lots of doors open because of the book, I seem to get invited to more fun things, and my twitter following has increased significantly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So if you are thinking of writing a really niche poker book but worried it might be too niche, this is a reason to do it. If you know a lot about poker affiliate marketing but fear the audience is low, having a book on the subject might secure you a new job or consultancy work. If you are an expert in badugi, writing the book on the game might secure you some coaching work. I myself have been toying with writing a small book on the <a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/poker-media-articles-advice.html">poker media</a> industry, which I doubt would sell more than a 100 copies lifetime, but it would look great on my CV.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It sounds clichéd, but just the achievement of having a book out there is worth doing it for. It may be tough to get a best seller in this increasingly competitive market, but it is so easy to self publish these days that it shouldn't really cost you much more than your time. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/poker-media-articles-advice.html">More Poker Media Advice Blogs </a></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-28099865513880102422012-08-18T10:11:00.004-07:002012-09-11T11:37:36.899-07:00The State Of Print Magazines In Poker<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This week
a <a href="http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/poker-writer-zerosum79-screwed-wpt-magazine-1235138/" style="color: blue;">thread was posted on 2+2</a> where a writer was outing WPT Poker Magazine for not
having paid him for 7 months. It now looks like he is (hopefully) going to be
paid as a direct result of him doing this. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I can see
why a lot of people would think that 7 months was a scandalous amount of time
to be paid, but I spoke to several of my fellow poker writer peers, and well
all shrugged our shoulders and said “meh, pretty standard, I wouldn’t worry at
7 months”.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">7 months
was a long time to wait, but not as long as you would think. Most poker magazines
have a policy of not paying until 3 months after the article is printed, and
often it takes about 2 months between submitting the article and before it is
printed. So even though I think 7 months is long, I wouldn’t even be chasing
for the first 5.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I used to
solely rely on magazines for my income. It once was a gold mine, but over the
years I have watched that part of the industry change dramatically. I'm glad I
got out of magazines, unfortunately I have done so with three magazines still owing
me money to this day (Only one still exists). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I should
also say that I have a great relationship with the guys at WPT, and I am quite
confident that the guy will get paid. The following is not really a comment on
WPT magazine, but most poker magazines I have dealt with (other than the
B2B magazines).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">There
were some comments in the thread about the wait time was indicative of the
magazine being close to bankruptcy. I don't agree with that, but I do confer
that many of them live on the breadline. Lots of them literally rely on the
same advertising revenue from issue x to pay for the freelance contributions
for issue x, with no spare budget waiting around for situations like
this. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This is
not all magazines of course, for example I wouldn't expect this to be the case
at <a href="http://www.pokerplayer.co.uk/" style="color: blue;">PokerPlayer Magazine</a>, because they are part of a larger publishing network,
Dennis Publishing. But most of them are part of much smaller publishers, in some
cases standalone ones.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQeeNXlYKXpZ3o135pc6A0jlbgYeMUR0hzkVvf5vFCX-KNlM3yZl2-EpRbs" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQeeNXlYKXpZ3o135pc6A0jlbgYeMUR0hzkVvf5vFCX-KNlM3yZl2-EpRbs" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It wasn't
always this hard for poker magazines, there was once a time, right after the
boom, where they had money to burn, and paid ridiculous amounts (I’ve never
been paid better for a single article than I was the first year I started
writing them). But the UIGEA hit the advertising budgets hard, and more
recently, Black Friday did the same. Even non-US magazines felt the impact as
hard, despite not being directly affected.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">While the
freelancers are being delayed by the magazines, the magazines are being delayed
by the advertisers. This doesn't make it ok for the magazines to string the freelancers
along in the meantime, but it is important to know they are part of a long an arduous
chain, and often get screwed out of money themselves (Sadly, advertisers not
paying is a frequent occurrence in poker).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This may
seem odd to many, that poker magazines are so dependent on advertising revenue.
The fact is that most of the time, poker magazines don't rely on sales, or at
least, they only make up a small part of their revenue which is deemed a bit of
a bonus at best. In fact, many advertising packages are based on the
presumption that the issues will be distributed for free in casinos,
guaranteeing lots of gamblers will see them. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">To give
an extreme example of this, I did some work for GX magazine, who never paid me.
It turned out that they weren't a real magazine at all, they just printed a few
hundred copies of their pretend magazine to show advertisers, so they could
hoard in the ad revenue without worrying about the printing costs. Check out
<a href="http://prycepoker.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/gx-magazine-dream-job-to-working-nightmare/" style="color: blue;">this blog from Nick Pryce</a>, someone who worked for them, to learn more about
them. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The last
frustrating part of the process with poker magazines is that the editor is not
the boss, not in the traditional sense at least. Most freelancers expect the
buck to stop with him, but in reality they often are pretty powerless when it
comes to payroll. Editors are often in an impossible situation here, where they
have to take the flak when people don't get paid, but can't do anything to
influence it.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">They only
thing they can, and should do, is create realistic expectations with
freelancers from the start. </span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.ratewall.com/cpics/0167a877-85fe-4672-a483-7426b4c62169_poker_magazine_Bluff_magazine.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.ratewall.com/cpics/0167a877-85fe-4672-a483-7426b4c62169_poker_magazine_Bluff_magazine.JPG" width="245" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Times are
tough for print magazines in general, and even harder for poker magazines. Most
of the best content these days, or at least the most up to date, is available
online and advertising revenue is getting tighter by the day.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Most
magazines these days rely on free contributions from people with something to
promote. Strategy articles from sponsored players, news articles branded with
the logos of a news site, tournament reports provided by the people organising
the tournament. The few bits and bobs I have done for magazines in the last
year or so has been to promote<span style="color: blue;"> </span><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/get-mental-game-of-poker-audio-book-for.html" style="color: blue;">my book</a> more than anything. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Anyone
looking to freelance for magazines these days, in my opinion, should be very
aware of this. There is still a future for print magazines in poker, but it
will be on shoestring budgets. There are still people out there that will pay
you to write for poker magazines, but it is not necessarily the guys that
publish them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/poker-media-articles-advice.html">More Poker Media Advice Blogs </a></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-7036840819038467412012-06-07T00:16:00.000-07:002012-06-07T00:16:13.267-07:00Get The Mental Game of Poker Audio Book For FreeA genuine free offer here, no rake requirements or anything else. You can actually get the audio book version of The Mental Game of Poker for free, if you do not have an account at Audible.com. Here's how:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzkEPj5Se6Q006QA3fRBgc1YspcSoi7U5oukkKDyZpvh6lhAzQ6fQAh2fnuuS0eQQ9M-RTONcSjU5huYMmre-rxaQFAAKKttsdf4u0GFq6p2uRVE9mj1kZjWoM-dJdvzktkuT108NOgVk/s1600/The+Mental+Game+of+Poker-+Proven+Strategies+for+Improving+Tilt+Control,+Confidence,+Motivation,+Coping+with+Variance,+and+More+Unabridged+(Audio+Download)-+Amazon.co.uk-+Jared+Tendler,+Barry+Carter-+Books.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzkEPj5Se6Q006QA3fRBgc1YspcSoi7U5oukkKDyZpvh6lhAzQ6fQAh2fnuuS0eQQ9M-RTONcSjU5huYMmre-rxaQFAAKKttsdf4u0GFq6p2uRVE9mj1kZjWoM-dJdvzktkuT108NOgVk/s200/The+Mental+Game+of+Poker-+Proven+Strategies+for+Improving+Tilt+Control,+Confidence,+Motivation,+Coping+with+Variance,+and+More+Unabridged+(Audio+Download)-+Amazon.co.uk-+Jared+Tendler,+Barry+Carter-+Books.png" width="165" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>Go to the audio book page on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Mental-Game-Poker-Strategies/dp/B00846CHDK/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1http://"><span style="color: blue;">Amazon.com </span></a>or <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mental-Game-Poker-Strategies/dp/B0085Y5WTM/ref=tmm_aud_title_0"><span style="color: blue;">Amazon.co.uk</span></a></li>
<li>There should be an option to start a free 30 day trial at Audible.com or Audible.co.uk - click on that.</li>
<li>Sign up for the free trial and choose the book, which you can download on a number of formats including PC, Android, and iPhone.</li>
<li>Then cancel your free trial within 30 days.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://barrycarterpoker.blogspot.co.uk/p/get-mental-game-of-poker-for-free.html"><span style="color: blue;">If you want a softcover version of the book for free, you can also do that this way. </span></a></div>
<div>
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<div>
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<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-86466554189326118702012-05-28T07:01:00.001-07:002012-05-28T07:01:29.502-07:00Mental Game of Poker on AudioBookYou can now buy The Mental Game of Poker on a number of AudioBook formats.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_15?asin=B0083WSQD0&qid=1337284199&sr=1-15">Audible.com</a> – <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Mental-Game-Poker-Strategies/dp/B00846CHDK/ref=zg_bs_4414_9" style="text-decoration: none;">Amazon.com</a> – <a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/download/">iTunes</a></span>
</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;"><b><a href="http://www.audible.co.uk/search/ref=sr_lftbox_1_1">Audible.co.uk </a>- <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mental-Game-Poker-Strategies/dp/B0085Y5WTM/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1338213190&sr=1-1-catcorr">Amazon.co.uk</a></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
A lot of people had asked about whether we would do it, and I must admit I was surprised there would be a demand for it, but early sales suggest that this is a big demand for audio poker books. We actually already are at the top of most "poker" searches at these sites. I think now it is really easy to download and listen to an audio book on your phone, which is probably why it has got off to such a promising early start.<br />
<br />
Because 98% of the book was written in Jared's voice, my own narration in it is literally about 10 minutes long, I'm very glad I didn't have to slog away for a month like Jared did to get this finished.<br />
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<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bVJkw7PvL._SL500_AA300_PIaudible,BottomRight,13,73_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bVJkw7PvL._SL500_AA300_PIaudible,BottomRight,13,73_AA300_.jpg" /></a></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-19633360572022787652012-05-18T10:30:00.002-07:002012-05-18T10:30:59.714-07:00New York/Married<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Last week I got married in New York to my long term partner Gina. I am clearly a thrift king, as I managed to turn the week into a wedding, a holiday, and a chance to meet up with my old buddy Jared Tendler (Who was also my best man) all in one. It was probably the best week I've ever had, and I certainly hope to go again. </span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: Tahoma;">It sounds flippant, and I certainly don't mean it to be, but New York did not surprise me at all. It is so iconic on film and TV that the whole place is strangely familiar from the moment you arrive. This predictability is by no means a bad thing, because every one of my expectations were very positive, and they were all met. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: Tahoma;">Maybe the biggest take away from this, one which I have also encountered in Vegas, is just how good American customer service is. This is purely because tips make up such a big part of the wages out there, and it really does show. You really do feel like your waiter is desperate for you to have the best time ever, which made the whole holiday so much better. I am a big fan of incentivising employees like this, and think it is a sure fire way of improving quality of service. I love the UK, I think it is one of the best places to live in the world, but I think this is one area where we can learn a great deal from our cousins over the pond. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: Tahoma;">Originally our plan was to get married in Central Park, but we picked the one day it went and rained of the whole trip. New York customer service to the rescue, as the manager of our hotel let us have the ceremony in the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g60763-d113317-Reviews-Casablanca_Hotel_Times_Square-New_York_City_New_York.html"><span style="color: blue;">Casablanca Hotel</span></a>. It's a fantastic hotel with a pretty unique decor, and I think it actually made it a little bit more special. After the service we went out into Time Square as husband and wife, with a photographer, and had one of the most fun, manic, 30 minutes ever. Time Square is one of the craziest places in the world, so throwing a Bride and Groom into the mix seemed to fit. Everyone was shouting messages of congratulations at us, and it was the icing on the cake of an amazing day. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: Tahoma;">Outside of the wedding, we did plenty of cool things. We went to a Yankees game and despite being 7,000 miles from home, managed to bump into Dusk Till Dawn director Simon Trumper with his daughter. The poker world is very small indeed. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: Tahoma;">Maybe my favourite (Non wedding) part of the week was The Book of Morman, a Broadway musical written by the guys from South Park. It was as immature, offensives, and as funny as South Park can get and really fit well with the musical format. I've been to tons of comedy clubs before, but I have never heard roaring laughter as loud as I did that night. We also went to the Comedy Cellar, the club from my current favourite show Louie, and that was pretty cool too. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: Tahoma;">There really is too much to say about it all, I could never do it justice to how good a wedding and honeymoon it was. It is the longest I've had off work in probably a decade and I do feel much better for it. I don't feel different yet being married, other than getting used to this new chunk of metal on my finger, but I do feel a renewed sense of enthusiasm towards my work and the future in general(Which in some part, will be from the relief it is all over).</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: Tahoma;">Speaking of which, <a href="http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_15?asin=B0083WSQD0&qid=1337284199&sr=1-15"><span style="color: blue;">The Mental Game of Poker was released yesterday as an audio book</span></a>. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: Tahoma;"><b><i>Photo Dump:</i></b></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/552905_10151701119900459_559185458_24078062_1827343481_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/552905_10151701119900459_559185458_24078062_1827343481_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still don't understand it, but had fun at the yankees</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Jared, myself, and Matt Kaufman</i></td></tr>
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<a href="http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/531177_10150803498178175_534978174_9562509_933333188_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/531177_10150803498178175_534978174_9562509_933333188_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anyone over the age of 26 knows what this is</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/579940_10151701049855459_559185458_24077548_1619881624_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/579940_10151701049855459_559185458_24077548_1619881624_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top of the Rockafella centre</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/03/25/arts/25MORMON-span/MORMON-articleLarge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/03/25/arts/25MORMON-span/MORMON-articleLarge.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Book of Morman</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Seinfeld cafe</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/178992_10151706216255459_559185458_24095759_268379697_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/178992_10151706216255459_559185458_24095759_268379697_n.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An artsy shot from our photographer</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/526159_10151701150010459_559185458_24078203_24699409_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/526159_10151701150010459_559185458_24078203_24699409_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me, Gina, Corey (The future Mrs Tendler), and Jared</td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: Tahoma;"><br /></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-72975281567616790342012-05-03T08:17:00.001-07:002012-05-03T08:17:13.146-07:00Getting Married Next Week In New YorkI hate posting when its been over a month since the last post.<br />
<br />
The reason has been I have been really busy. Things are going great at PokerStrategy.com and they really have been keeping me busy with lots of fun stuff. It's certainly the most interesting job I've ever had and I am learning so much working alongside so many talented people.<br />
<br />
The other reason for the low productivity with the blog is because I get married next week, and as you can imagine, planning for that is taking up all my time. I'm super excited, I can't remember ever looking forward to something as much as this. It's a win-win-win because not only do I get married, I also get to have the holiday of a lifetime, and my old mate Jared Tendler is going to be doing the best man duties.<br />
<br />
Two weeks off in total, which is the longest I have had off ever since I started working in poker. I can pretty much guarantee that means that Stars will buy Full Tilt in that time, or some other major news scandal, which I will miss out on reporting on.<br />
<br />
The journey starts on Saturday and I am praying that my beloved Sheffield Wednesday get the ball rolling for an amazing summer by winning against Wycombe and securing a place in the Championship. If they don't, at least I will be on the other side of the world before my Sheffield United mates give me stick.<br />
<br />
So hopefully the next blog post will be a round-up of how awesome New York is.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-13223276360424075522012-04-08T13:11:00.001-07:002012-04-08T13:11:54.337-07:00Phil Hellmuth Mental Game InterviewEver since we release <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615436137?ie=UTF8&tag=themengamofpo-20&linkCode=shr&camp=213733&creative=393177&creativeASIN=0615436137&ref_=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1"><span style="color: blue;">The Mental Game of Poker</span></a> we have dreamed about getting Phil Hellmuth and Jared together. The Poker Brat is so well known for not being able to control his emotions at the table, he seemed like such a perfect person for Jared to meet.<br />
<br />
We finally got him, and I thought it was a great and surprisingly frank interview, well worth a listen.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LHjJ4Vhzevg" width="380"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-62164374501795723722012-03-18T04:56:00.000-07:002012-03-18T04:56:00.229-07:00PokerStrategy.com Column - Is Daniel Negreanu The Saviour Of Poker?<i>This is a column from earlier this month, origially published at <a href="http://pokerstrategy.com/">PokerStrategy.com</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
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<td style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #888888;">Negreanu in his video blog</span></em></td>
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Last week, I wrote a feature on my <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/57203/">Top 5 Poker Troublemakers</a> and put Daniel Negreanu in at number one. It appeared there was something of a language issue with the term "troublemaker", as it was taken by some readers to mean "criminal" or "scumbaggy".<br />
<br />
That was completely the opposite of my intention; I actually used the word "troublemaker" to simply mean that the guys on the list start and get involved in a lot of public feuds. In particular, I referenced Negreanu as usually being on the right side of the feud, as he tends to take it upon himself to stand up for what he believes are in the best interests of poker. <br />
<br />
He is always involved in these feuds, but recently he has taken it to another level; his outspoken <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/57196/">video blogs on the Full Tilt story</a> have really defined him as something of a saviour for poker. <br />
<br />
I, for one, have loved the blogs. Not only have they been pretty entertaining, but he has also used his massive following to keep things like the FTP story firmly in the front of people's minds. <br />
<br />
<h2>
Selective criticism?</h2>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #888888;">Kid Poker has a huge following</span></em></td>
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However, he has also come under some criticism for being somewhat selective with who he chooses to take shots at. Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Annie Duke have never exactly been on his Christmas card list, after all. <br />
<br />
Some people in the poker community have asked why he isn't also speaking out in regards to some other figures who have come under scrutiny of late; players he also considers friends, such as <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/57087/">Phil Ivey</a> and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/57326/">Erik Lindgren</a>. <br />
<br />
The recent controversy around the second name, Erick Lindgren, has forced Negreanu's hand a little. Pressure on a lengthy 2+2 forum thread has <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/57364/">led Negreanu to speak in more detail about the debts owed by his friend</a>, and he has promised to make a video blog about it this month. <br />
<br />
We all have friends who do things we are not proud of, and it cannot be easy for Daniel to have to speak publicly about this. But should he be expected to voice his opinion on his friends in the same way that he does on people like Howard Lederer and Annie Duke?<br />
<br />
It is refreshing to see such a high profile figure candidly airing his views, particularly in an industry that is often heavily influenced by sponsors. With so many former FTP ambassadors having seemingly taken a vow of silence after the site went down, it is nice to see someone who cannot stop himself from sharing his opinions (and let's not forget, this is a man who <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/52389/">boycotted an event run by his own sponsor</a>). <br />
<br />
In particular, this really is a time that we need some of the good guys to show poker in a positive light. It is becoming an all-too-regular occurrence that a once highly thought of figure in the game is exposed for having bad debt, cheating, or in some way bringing the game into disrepute. By his own admission in a video blog, Negreanu says he is "casting these stones because he is without sin", and in doing so has established himself as the 'white knight of poker'.<br />
<br />
As a result he has created a real rock for his back, as he is inevitably going to be asked to comment on each and every scandal that transpires in poker. Because he is good friends with a lot of people on the circuit, that often means he will be asked to comment on things that could damage his personal and professional relationships. <br />
<br />
<h2>
Great power, great responsibility?</h2>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #888888;">Should Negreanu fight all our battles?</span></em></td>
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It's a cliché, but with great power comes great responsibility and if Daniel is going to continue calling out culprits in the shadier side of the game, he can't expect to be able to pick and choose his battles. That is one of the prices of <a href="http://twitter.com/RealKidPoker" target="_parent">150,000+ Twitter followers</a>, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/57285/" target="_parent">9th place ranking in the Bluff Power 20</a>, a weekly rant video blog, a lucrative sponsorship deal, and a small army of loyal fans. <br />
<br />
I don't envy him this responsibility and I admire the fact that he is starting to address some subjects he probably would prefer not to. As much I believe he has made it his responsibility to fight our battles for us, I also think the poker community needs to ease up on him, not expect so much from him, and not give him too much power. He is only one man after all, and although I believe he genuinely does what he believes is in the best interests of the game; it doesn't always mean he will be right. <br />
<br />
I think the best thing Negreanu can do in his new role as the "people's champion" of poker is to encourage people in similar positions of influence as him to speak up when they think it is appropriate. Most professional players would kill to have the following Kid Poker does, so hopefully by following his lead, and by learning from the mistakes of some of the recent poker heroes to have fallen from grace, we will see more ambassadors for the game who speak out rather than sit back and watch bad things happen. <br />
<br />
Is Daniel Negreanu poker's only hope? Its last saviour? Is it his responsibility to rescue us from all the bad things that happen in this game? I don't think so. But I do know that Daniel Negreanu is one of the last of the "old school" generation with an untainted reputation, and poker would be in a very dark place if that ever changed. <br />
<br />
<em><span style="color: #888888;">by <a href="http://www.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=156464">Barry Carter </a></span></em><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-30875227211745882942012-03-16T03:35:00.000-07:002012-03-16T03:36:14.690-07:00Let's get Annie Duke's book off the top spot on Kindle<div>
Being as everyone is back bashing Annie Duke, I thought I would wade in and point out she has the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=poker"><span style="color: blue;">number one ranked poker book on kindle</span></a>. Look at which book is number 2: </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGY5AEy0MC22NLsaXbyJGPenBAUYK0c27duRrEIhreI3MyIqWN0I7hGK0tKDQZCFJ-Ka4XfKuWGQe35B5NomQlZ78P7vHUt_fFSNckwVxhH8AD1-UhOu43dr6QIkO2B99kcGOR0KRlqkM/s1600/Amazon.com-+poker-+Kindle+Store.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGY5AEy0MC22NLsaXbyJGPenBAUYK0c27duRrEIhreI3MyIqWN0I7hGK0tKDQZCFJ-Ka4XfKuWGQe35B5NomQlZ78P7vHUt_fFSNckwVxhH8AD1-UhOu43dr6QIkO2B99kcGOR0KRlqkM/s400/Amazon.com-+poker-+Kindle+Store.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
This pretty much seems like the only shot I have at getting Daniel Negreanu to start a campaign to get <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Mental-Game-Poker-ebook/dp/B005RZRHDG/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1331893537&sr=1-2"><span style="color: blue;">The Mental Game of Poker</span></a> to the top spot.<br />
<br />
Ok its a piss weak attempt to spam our book, but I have been pretty good about not spamming this week, so allow me this indulgence.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-31159178824792384812012-03-15T07:51:00.001-07:002012-03-15T07:52:04.784-07:00Gavin Griffin on the Jared Tendler Mental Game Radio ShowI mentioned to Jared recently that he should get triple crown winner Gavin Griffin on his <a href="http://quadjacks.com/category/thementalgame/">Mental Game Radio Show</a>. Jared has had some stellar guests on already, and Gavin has recently blogged about how he is rebuilding his bankroll after suffering some heavy losses, and generally seems to be handling it emotionally very well.<br />
<br />
So Gavin went on the show, and it became an impromptu client session, which I think went tremendously well and well worth a listen:<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EELOR1ffTwU?feature=player_embedded" width="480"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-32159876256349702912012-03-12T02:17:00.000-07:002012-03-12T02:17:00.029-07:00PokerStrategy.com Column - Why Pro-Only Poker Tours Will Never Work<i>This is a column written for <a href="http://pokerstrategy.com/">PokerStrategy.com</a> earlier this month. </i><br />
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<td><img align="right" alt="epic" height="175" src="http://resources.pokerstrategy.com/2012/03/01/league.jpg" style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 12px;" width="250" /></td>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #888888;">Epic League files for bankruptcy</span></em></td>
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This week, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/57191/">the company behind the Epic Poker League filed for bankruptcy</a> after just three events. Twitter and poker forums have been engulfed with messages of "I told you so" ever since. <br />
<br />
I myself have been very vocal on why I thought such a tour would not work, but today I do not want to take a shot at them while they are down, especially because there are people with jobs at risk. But I do want to talk about one element of the league that we see attempted time and time again, but rarely see it work. <br />
<br />
Ever since poker went mainstream, there has been a fascination with classifying it as a sport. If we discard the fact that some of our greatest "athletes" are obese, or the fact you can win world titles while drunk (thank you, Scotty), then the sport parallel actually serves a good purpose. <br />
<br />
Mainly, in the "cleaning up" of the image of poker. Until the boom, poker was very much a backroom game, and the perception of the players was that of second-class citizens. Taking the cowboys, gangsters, and degenerate gamblers out of the spotlight was very important for the poker industry, and treating it like a sport was the perfect way to do that. <br />
<br />
Most poker is broadcast on sports channels, we see lots of former athletes (and celebrities) endorsing it, and the biggest players are treated like celebrities and patched up like NASCAR drivers. Poker is much more accepted by the mainstream these days, and I think the sport thing really helped that. <br />
<br />
So thank you sport, for letting us piggy back on your good name. Unfortunately, we stayed on too long. <br />
<br />
<h2>
The PGA model</h2>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #888888;">Can poker follow the PGA model?</span></em></td>
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For years, those at the top of the game have tried to create a PGA model tour for poker. This is an invite only format, where the best of the best are invited to prove who really is the best of the best of the best...<br />
<br />
The Epic Poker League is the best example of this, but there have been other attempts to try similar things. The Onyx Cup (which obviously never happened) and WPT spin-off, the Professional Poker Tour. Elsewhere several poker rankings systems - Bluff, Cardplayer, Global Poker Index - have been set up in an attempt to showcase who the best is.<br />
<br />
Of course, the cynics amongst us believe that these attempts to create a PGA-style tour are largely about excluding unknown players from winning the events, and guaranteeing a "made for TV" final table. It is true that most poker viewers want to see Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Hellmuth at the same table, and this is without doubt the best reason to argue for a PGA-style tour - a marketable final table.<br />
<br />
But we could already reach that without the hassle of creating a league; that's what shows like Poker After Dark, the NBC Heads-up Championships, High Stakes Poker, and super high roller events are for. More so, are league tables really what we want the audience want to see in poker? I would argue that the casual spectator wants to see big money and the drama of the moment, they are not coming to poker to see if their favourite player win league points. <br />
<br />
Then of course there is the luck factor: how can anyone take a league format seriously when luck plays such a major role? Yes, the more events you play, the more it evens out, but it would take hundreds (maybe thousands) of events to truly get a realistic handle of who the best players are. A league based on a handful of events is as much a "run good" league as it is anything else. <br />
<br />
In particular, I struggle to take such a format seriously when the participants are by no means the icons their inclusion would suggest. When many of the participants have bad debt, need a loan to play the event, or are just plain broke, it seems ridiculous they are included when money is the way we keep score in this game. The Epic Poker League's first champion, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/50591/" target="_parent">Chino Rheem</a>, was the perfect example of this, as stories of his bad debt overshadowed his victory last year. <br />
<br />
<h2>
Removing the luck factor</h2>
It is not just the PGA-style tours that are trying to repackage poker in sporting terms. There have been numerous unsuccessful attempts to over emphasise the skill factor of the game, and deny the luck all together. I have seen many attempts to create new versions of poker which promise there will be no bad beats, where the variance is somehow taken out of the equation (Usually by either stopping drawing cards when all the money goes in the middle, or by awarding prizes based on equity, not showdown) or reduced, like in duplicate poker. <br />
<br />
Never heard of any of these formats? That's because they never work, and rarely survive long enough to be seen to fail. <br />
<br />
<h2>
Poker is inclusive</h2>
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<td><img align="right" alt="moneymaker" height="183" src="http://www.highstakesnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/chris-moneymaker-wsop.gif" style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 12px;" width="250" /></td>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #888888;">Cinderella stories are what poker thrives on</span></em></td>
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The biggest problem I have with PGA-style tours in poker is that they seem to deny the very thing which makes poker the marketable, profitable, and enjoyable game that it is. <br />
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Poker is special because it bridges the gap between the PGA tour level players and the amateur watching at home. The greatest thing that ever happened to poker was when amateur Chris Moneymaker beat the pros in the main event, and inspired millions of players to try and do the same. <br />
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The fact that a brand new player could beat a world champion is what makes poker marketable. The fact that good variance makes a bad player believe they can beat games they are a complete dog in, is what makes poker profitable. The fact that anyone can buy into a WSOP/WPT/EPT event tomorrow and get sat next to Phil Hellmuth or Daniel Negreanu, is precisely what makes poker different (and in a way, better) to any other "sport". <br />
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Yet ever since Moneymaker taught us these things in 2003, event organisers and players at the top have seemingly tried to bite the hand that feeds them, by attempting to exclude the 99.9% of players who pay their bills. <br />
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The only people who really benefit from PGA model poker events are the players who are invited to play in them. Can we please stop kissing the asses of this minority of players by giving them ridiculous <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/56423/">sponsorship deals</a> and added money masonic tours, and start remembering the majority that keeps the poker economy afloat?<br />
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Yes, we want to see the best players in the world on TV, but what we <em>really</em> want to do is play with them. That's what makes poker successful, that's why the WSOP/EPT/WPT work, that's why an online partner is vital to the success of any major event or TV show, and that is how you capture the imagination of new players. The fact that it is possible to fast-track your way to the very top, if only for a moment, is what makes poker so enticing. <br />
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The moment you close the doors in poker, you shut out everything that make it special. <br />
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<em><span style="color: #888888;">by <a href="http://www.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=156464">Barry Carter </a></span></em><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-46415318968459203592012-03-10T05:15:00.000-08:002012-03-10T05:15:00.631-08:00@KevMath InterviewLast month I interviewed one of my heroes, Kevin @KevMath Mathers, for PokerStrategy.com. It is all about a subject very dear to me - twitter.<br />
<br />
Enjoy<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="369" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rdn4ScKBOrg" width="500"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158278656076727778.post-69743366210722408122012-03-09T02:15:00.000-08:002012-03-09T02:15:01.182-08:00PokerStrategy.com Column - Phil Ivey - Hero or Villain?<table align="right" border="0">
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<td><img align="right" alt="Ivey" height="250" src="http://img2.canadapoker.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Phil-Ivey-LAPC.jpg&t=f17165f6d5c86deddaaf928d43fa8f0b" style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 12px;" width="250" /></td>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #888888;">Ivey last week at the LA Poker Classic </span></em></td>
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<i>This is a column previously published on <a href="http://pokerstrategy.com/">PokerStrategy.com</a> last month. </i><br />
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Last week, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/57041/">Phil Ivey ended his self-imposed exile of the US tournament circuit</a> by playing (and bubbling) the LA Poker Classic. We all wondered what sort of reception he would get in the US after his eight month hiatus, given that his name has been dragged through the mud during that time. <br />
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Although the tournament itself went without much fuss for Ivey, there was something of a backlash against him on the poker forums. This is largely due to rumours that he owes Full Tilt Poker $4 million, which he has not confirmed or denied, but it is said to be one of the factors holding up a takeover by Groupe Bernard Tapie.<br />
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It is remarkable how Ivey was once the universally most admired player in the game, but is now being demonised by some sections of his former fan base. He appears to have lost his enigma status much in the same way that the man he is most often compared to, Tiger Woods, has in golf (for completely different reasons, of course).<br />
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So is this backlash warranted, or should we still let Ivey do what he does best, play poker, and stand back and admire him like we did before?<br />
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<h2>
Just an employee?</h2>
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<td><img align="right" alt="Ivey" height="200" src="http://headsupmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/phil-ivey.jpg" style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 12px;" width="200" /></td>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #888888;">The poster boy for FTP</span></em></td>
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Ivey was not one of the names indicted back in September when the DOJ first revealed the full extent of FTP's financial woes, and I don't think anyone particularly thinks he had any major role in how the company was run. <br />
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One of the biggest arguments made by people who are still his fans is that ultimately he was just an employee of the site, and should not be held responsible for its downfall. <br />
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I, for one, happen to agree with that stance. Just because someone has been considerably well paid, does not mean they should feel guilty about it. If Ivey knew nothing of what was going on in the back office at FTP, and carried out his duties in good faith, then he was just unlucky it was for a company like FTP. This is why it was particularly admirable for someone like durrrr to pledge to give the money he made at FTP back to the players. <br />
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He has probably been advised to keep quiet by his lawyers for his own good, and for the proposed takeover by GBT. Nobody wants this deal to fall through, and we certainly don't want any former pro with a profile as big as Iveys to start disrupting the takeover. Indeed, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/57016/">Matt Glantz</a> and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/56904/">Doyle Brunson</a> both blogged last week saying that former FTP shareholders are afraid to make public statements and then be perceived as negatively influencing the outcome of the takeover. <br />
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<h2>
$4 million influence</h2>
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<td><img alt="Ivey" height="163" src="http://resources.pokerstrategy.com/2012/01/28/iveypwn.png" style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 12px;" title="Ivey" width="250" /></td>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #888888;">Winning $2m last month at the Aussie Millions</span></em></td>
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But here is the problem, Ivey has already influenced the takeover. He is <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/56256/">rumoured to owe $4 million to FTP</a>, which according to GBT is one of the factors holding up the deal. It does seem inconceivable that $4 million is going to massively influence a takeover worth hundreds of millions, but he will still be perceived by the poker community as one of the main culprits holding up the deal until he clears the rumours of this debt up. <br />
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This is made much worse by the fact that we <em>know</em> he has money to burn. He started the year with a <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/56061/">$2 million win, in a $250,000 buy-in event, at the Aussie Millions</a>. He has also been seen playing in Macau, this week in LA, and is heavily <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/57006/">rumoured to be RaiseOnce on PokerStars</a>, who is involved in all the biggest cash games on the site. <br />
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The $4m he is rumoured to owe may be a drop in the ocean compared to his personal bankroll, and he may indeed have good reason not to have paid that money back yet (<a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/56267/">Like Barry Greenstein</a>, who has said he is holding out to make sure the money goes back to the players) - but when millions of dollars of player's money is stuck on FTP and the takeover with the DOJ is in limbo; it is very difficult for any of us to be able to separate this from the fact Ivey appears to be living the high life at our expense. <br />
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Let us also not forget that it was Ivey who supposedly had the player's interests at heart when, back in June 2011, he <a href="http://www.blogger.com/news/world-of-poker/47056/">boycotted the WSOP and filed a lawsuit against Tiltware</a>. The reasons he claimed he did this was because he was embarrassed that FTP had not paid back the players the money they owed and wanted to force them into action. He stated:<br />
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"I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible."<br />
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That statement does seem laughable right now. Ivey is now competing in the biggest games around, winning seven-figure sums and pictured wearing a $90k watch, while FTP players have made no progress since. Not only has he not found a solution; he is potentially holding one up by not paying back money he is said to owe. <br />
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There are of course other FTP shareholders who are remaining quiet, as well as players who are said to owe money to FTP who have not confirmed or denied their debt, but continue to play. Ivey has the focus on him because he is the highest profile, is rumoured to owe one of the largest amounts, has publicly won the most money since rumours of his debt, and most importantly has previously claimed to be acting in the best interest of FTP players. <br />
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<h2>
Hero or villain?</h2>
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<td><img align="right" alt="Ivey" height="200" src="http://www.joueursdepoker.pro/img/phil-ivey-wsop.jpg" style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 12px;" width="200" /></td>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #888888;">Hero or villain?</span></em></td>
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Phil Ivey was the poster boy for Full Tilt Poker, he was without doubt their biggest ambassador, brought in thousands of new players, and was clearly one of the shareholders who profited the most from the site. <br />
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Although he currently has no legal obligation to address the speculation surrounding him, he really should. The poker players he claimed to be defending when he filed the Tiltware lawsuit are not only still wondering if they will ever see their money again, they are also wondering if Phil is part of the reason why the GBT deal still has not happened. And all this while Phil is making headlines for living it up with money which appears to have been made at our expense. <br />
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No, he has no obligations at all, but if he ever wants to return to being the hero of poker we all once knew and loved, the hero he purported to be when he boycotted the WSOP for <em>our</em> benefit, he needs to address some of the speculation and uncertainty around him, instead of pretending that Full Tilt never happened. <br />
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<em>Tell us your opinion. Is Phil Ivey still a poker hero? Do you think he owes the poker community some of the money he made at FTP? Tell us your thoughts in the comments box. </em><br />
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<em><span style="color: #888888;">by <a href="http://www.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=156464">Barry Carter </a></span></em><br />
<em></em>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109801813980120376noreply@blogger.com0