The Archives Of The GGPoker Blog – Part 8
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Part 8 – February 1st, 2019 through March 31st, 2019
Originally posted: February 20th, 2019
Video Poker evolution; from cam to Twitch
RIP Radio
Video killed the radio star, but empowered the Twitch idol. Welcome to TwitchWorld, where anyone can be famous for anything at any given time.
There’s all sorts of reasons fans flock to Twitch channels. Maybe you’re a quiet speedrunner. Those fans have come to see your craft. By that same token, you might find someone who’s bad at gaming but uproariously funny. Those fans have come for the banter.
You can sing, dance, learn, give lessons, perform stories (Looking at you Brian Limond) or perform creepy ASMR. However you choose to do it, social platforms like Twitch and Youtube have removed the success barrier from the average person. If you have the drive, wherewithal and rig to run your operation from the comfort of your bedroom, what’s stopping you climbing the ladder?
How video poker influenced Twitch
Video poker, of course, does not refer exclusively to poker played with a webcam’s aid. It’s also a playable machine, like an arcade rig. For our purposes, we are referring to webcam-assisted games.
Before online poker, if you wanted to play a friendly game you had to visit the local pub or trick your siblings into wagering their allowance for the third time in a month. Now, with the prevalence and ease of access to online games globally, there’s now two distinct types of player; online or live, which includes players who play entirely one or entirely the other.
Now, let’s allow these Venn diagrams to intersect slightly more. You have players who prefer live poker, but play online out of convenience. Likewise, you have online players, who expressly dislike being ogled, winning their way to live glory, be it through sats or whatever else.
Through blurred lines, one can be the other and vice versa. Specialists are yesterday’s news and the hybrid is your new champ, effortlessly able to switch from live to online with all the ease of an android.
Burgeoning stars
Many online poker players are only recently getting wise to the untapped vein of Twitch riches. When the platform first opened their doors to poker, the early birds devoured the worms. Lex Veldhuis, first among his brood to get Twitched, ruled the roost with regard to poker content.
While streaming WCOOP main event in September 2018, the Dutch pro almost snatched the Twitch poker viewership record with over 34K concurrent viewers. There’s one thing to be said for a popular face at the tables, a recognizable personality for viewers to attach themselves too, but it’s another thing entirely when you’re doing it solo. People arrive for the express purpose of watching you, or in this case Lex, as a single entity.
Lex boasted 85,000 Twitch followers at some point which, when you consider how niche poker is, is an impressive statistic. Most of the players in that batch will also pay a monthly fee to interact with Lex, no different than paying PewDiePie to shout out your name on stream.
The world of tomorrow
In our age of instaclick dopamine receptors and genetically modified AI sandwich makers, the novelty of video poker is lost in a storm of unique online variants and high-quality video game poker.
Twitch streamers
We’re hardly letting an opportunity to big up our own Twitch guys pass us by. Like Lex, each boasts their own distinct brand, personality, style of poker, their own cool homemade graphics and the rest.
ShroomtheRiver – UK agent, sweet tooth, dog lover, shampoo enthusiast
Scrim – Eastern agent, amazing graphics, zany stream, high-energy, great fun and high-level play, with coaching options available
Vanessa – Vanessa Kade hails from the snowy northron land of mounted cops and magic donut-dispensing moose
Karlencho – Europe’s finest. An energetic stream, hilarious daily content, active social media presence and cool as a cucumber to boot
Brian Fite – legend, larger than life and, true to his namesake, a fighter through and through
See you through the webcam,
Mike at GGPoker
Originally posted: February 27th, 2019
MBP Main Event Heroes
Got what it takes to be an MBP Main Event Hero?
MBP Main Event Hero is back for the ¥300 Weekly MBP Main Event on Saturday, March 2.
There’s two new Saturday Main Events in town – the ¥300 Weekly MBP Main Event and the ¥1000 Weekly MBP High Roller – and we’re adding tons of rewards on top exclusively for GGPoker players.
Last week’s MBP Heroes competition saw just eight UK and Irish players involved, with the ticket winner from this last-longer busting before the money. With such a small field of competition and so much extra value, this exclusive regional competition is too good to miss, and you won’t find those odds anywhere else!
Win a ticket just for taking part, and win bigger tickets for finishing higher
To celebrate the addition of the hefty Saturday ¥100,000 GTD Weekly Main Event, we’re adding a ton of extra value for GGPoker players to get involved. All GGPoker players that play in the¥300 Weekly MBP Main Event on Saturday, March 2 will get a ticket for a daily MBP tournament. Everyone gets a ticket, but there’s higher value pinnacle rewards for those who make the money or the final table:
- Participate in the event to get a ¥50 MBP Turbo ticket (¥2,500 GTD)
- Finish In The Money to get a ¥105 MBP Bounty ticket (¥8,000 GTD)
- Make the final table to get a ¥300 MBP Main Event ticket (¥60,000 GTD)
In the UK or Ireland? Great chance to win a full GGP Masters Main Event ticket
Exclusively available to our players in the UK and Ireland, there’s a $400 GGPoker Masters Day 1 Main Event ticket for the highest-finishing Irish or UK player in the ¥300 Weekly MBP Main Event on Saturday, March 2.
Between these two competitions and the massive prize pool on offer, there’s more value than you can shake a stick at in the upcoming ¥300 MBP Main Event on Saturday, March 2 – Don’t miss out!
Promotion Terms & Conditions
- Players must be aged 18 and above to participate in this promotion.
- This promotion applies to the ¥300 Weekly MBP Main Event on Saturday, March 2 only
- The GGPoker Masters main event ticket promotion is exclusively available to GGPoker players located in the UK and Ireland.
- Players will receive one ticket only – the highest-value ticket for which they are eligible.
- Tickets will be awarded on the next business day after the event – Monday, March 4.
- Prize ticket expiry will be set to 7 days.
- The promotion terms and conditions are subject to the site terms and conditions, which can be found here.
GGPoker standard rules apply.
www.begambleaware.org
Originally posted: February 28th, 2019
How Poker Strategy Can Change Your Game
Introduction
Even in brutal warfare where waves are atomised in a single lance of pale fire and the churned world is rendered lunar, there’s planning behind the frenzy. Master of warfare Sun Tzu understood the importance of strategic deployment of resources and, most applicable to poker, he never underestimated the strength of an opponent.
All such lessons can be applied to poker. Even at the lower levels when the moon is right, anyone can lose to anyone. Like the Roman holiday Saturnalia, there comes a day when that which is is no longer.
Poker is all about the cunning asset deployment, spinning mistruths and pressing perceived advantages to the Nth degree.
Study
In order to squeeze long-lasting wisdom from lessons hard-learned or otherwise, study sessions are your friends. A quick glance over the stats after every session helps the day’s lessons to germinate and eventually bloom into lovely dollarbuds. It’s a hackneyed statement with more assumed wisdom than it’s due, but fail to prepare and prepare to fail.
Stratagem
In bygone days of dragonslayer knights, it was fine to have just one strategy. Before all the knowledge of the known world was available at a nod, it seemed perfectly acceptable to learn the same sword swings and strokes your father knew, and his before him, as had served since time immemorial.
Now, not so much. Modern players hoping for a run at the top must have both the ability to change up their style on the fly and a strong selection of strategies chambered, ready to deploy as and when.
There’s numerous ways to get to grips with general strategies. You can put your own spin on the classics once the baseline knowledge is absorbed. Any of the following avenues would serve usefully for newbies:
- Online coaching – whether it’s Skype or private Twitch sessions, many streamers offer this auxiliary service to patrons to supplicate income
- Books, books and more books
- Actually playing. Nothing helps like experience. If you’re an online-exclusive nervous about the live atmosphere of an upcoming tournament, hit up your local games and acclimate to the changes
Without getting too much into the nitty-gritty, I’ll provide a brief overview of some applicable strategies/useful advices:
Decision-making: always make good decisions. Even the best players have losing sessions. Your goal should not be winning every time, or leaving the micros ahead of schedule, but to improve every session.
The maths: gut is one way to do it, but the most definable way to increase your winning percentage is to learn the maths. Above all things, this most human of games is a maths challenge. If you know your figures and percentages, use them to your advantage.
Avoiding tilt: Might seem obvious, but you don’t make better decisions when you’re frothing over the keyboard, cursing your felt-friends to kingdom come. Keep emotion out of it. Remember Data from Star Trek whooping everyone at cards? Why do you think that was? Three words; Emotions Chip removal.
Sensible bluffs: Bluffing is great. Pulling the wool over people’s eyes, convincing them of your considered half-truths, there’s no greater feeling. Each time I successfully bluff, I imagine myself as a red devil dancing atop the trinkets I relieved those poor souls of. Don’t get addicted to it though, your bluffs have to make sense to be successful. When you bluff, you’re trying to get the opponent with the best hand to fold. When you get dealt a stinker, bluffing also gives you a second way to win, not reliant on the luck of the draw.
Got it?
You’re a GGPoker player – damn right you’ve got it. Take the lessons learned here today and decorate yourself with wealth.
Knowledge is power,
Mike at GGPoker
Originally posted: March 27th, 2019
GGMasters: After the Fact
Thanks to those of you who made the trip this past weekend, said hello at the desk or wore a hat or a patch. We appreciate the support, both at the event in the weeks prior – you’re all GGPoker Masters to us.
The event was live-blogged for our Facebook page, where you can read the real-time updates, along with checking out the three photo albums. Take a look, tag anyone who might not have seen themselves looking hot in HD and let us know what you thought of the event. Seems like the structure was popular, general good feeling abounds and we’re very happy with the event, and our plan is that the next one is gonna be even bigger.
Congratulations to all our winners, those from GGPoker directly or further afield.
Inner Winner Circle
Master Blaster might have first dibs on Thunderdome, but Ivan Tononi was this weekend’s Master. Italian by birthright, Ivan took a page from his ancestors book and arrived with a conquering spirit. With flatcap firmly perched on his head, Ivan very much looked the part as he cashed the event for $15,615 and won the one-of-a-kind Masters trophy – a great win.
I am Iron Man
Sunday was far from a Black Sabbath, with several players taking large cashes, including George Sandford, 2nd in the event itself, winner of our Iron Man last-longer competition prize of a $1,500 GGPoker tournament package.
He doesn’t have railguns hands, rocket shoes, an iron exterior or membership to the Avengers, but he does have the skills to pay the bills.
Luis Henrique, third in the event, was also part of the Iron Man competition, and a great battle was fought between the two to decide supremacy, with George Sanford emerging triumphant, but Luis none the worse for wear with his excellent finish.
GGPoker Massive represent
Four GGPoker qualifiers made the final table, an amazing turnout for the parish and a great exhibition of the highly-skilled players the frequent our tables. Find the fish and there find the sharks! Massive props and shout outs to those players also; Annette O’Carroll (7th place) and Chris Glover (8th place).
Great to see some of Irish poker’s most legendary faces there in attendance – some of them repping their own GGPoker hats and merchandise.
A huge thanks also to Brian, Nick and all the team at IPS who were instrumental in the event’s success, plus all the staff out at the CityNorth hotel who catered to our every need, and some tasty grub served besides. Maybe less fire alarms next time, but no promises 
One last special thanks to select members of our Discord crew, UPAY4DINNER and Twosneverlose, both of whom will be making waves in the Twitch ocean throughout 2019, and Scrimitzu and ShroomTheRiver of Team GGPoker who made the long trip out from overseas to attend the event and stake their claim for the cash.
Aftermath
Still basking in the glory of this weekend’s win, our winners are still sipping pina coladas and rearing for the next one, but that’s not all from our end! If you played any GGPoker online Day 1 or registered directly into one of the live flights and grabbed one of our promo cards, you are eligible to grab a ticket into an upcoming GGPoker Masters freeroll, a generous bookend to a weekend of great poker action. If you missed this one, the next one is a must-attend event.
We’ll see you there,
GGPoker
Originally posted: March 29th, 2019
$90K across two High Roller Clubs
A combined $90,000 in prizes up for grabs Hold’em and Omaha High Roller Clubs
There’s not one, but TWO High Roller Club promotions running at the same time – introducing the $45K Hold’em High-Roller Club and the $45K Omaha High-Roller Club.
How does it work?
- Play at Featured Tables – Omaha games for Omaha High-Roller Club and Hold’em games for Hold’em High-Roller Club
- Earn points for your play
- Points totals are tracked on the HRC leaderboards
- The top 15 players on the Hold’em HRC Leaderboard, and the top 10 in Omaha HRC Leaderboard, will be awarded a combined total of $90,000 worth of BLADE tickets
- Omaha HRC runs from April 1 through April 13
- Hold’em HRC runs from April 1 through April 20
Prizes – $45K Hold’em High Roller Club
| Position | No. of Blade event tickets | Total value of tickets |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | $10,000 |
| 2 | 4 | $7,500 |
| 3 | 2 | $5,500 |
| 4 | 3 | $4,000 |
| 5 | 4 | $3,000 |
| 6 | 3 | $2,500 |
| 7 | 3 | $2,000 |
| 8 | 3 | $2,000 |
| 9 | 2 | $1,500 |
| 10 | 2 | $1,500 |
| 11 | 2 | $1,500 |
| 12 | 1 | $1,000 |
| 13 | 1 | $1,000 |
| 14 | 2 | $1,000 |
| 15 | 2 | $1,000 |
Prizes – $45K Omaha High Roller Club
| Position | No. of Blade event tickets | Total value of tickets |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | $12,500 |
| 2 | 7 | $7,500 |
| 3 | 7 | $6,000 |
| 4 | 6 | $5,000 |
| 5 | 5 | $4,000 |
| 6 | 4 | $3,000 |
| 7 | 3 | $2,500 |
| 8 | 2 | $2,000 |
| 9 | 2 | $1,500 |
| 10 | 2 | $1,000 |
Promotion Terms & Conditions
1. Players must be aged 18 and above to participate in this promotion.
2. Hold’em High-Roller Club Giveaway promotion will run through April 1st, 10:00:00 ~ April 20th, 23:59:59 (UTC+0).
3. Omaha High-Roller Club Giveaway promotion will run through April 1st, 10:00:00 ~ April 13th, 23:59:59 (UTC+0).
4. High-Roller Club Points can only be earned at Featured Hold’em or Featured Omaha Tables.
5. High-Roller Club Points are counted separately for each leaderboard.
6. High-Roller Club Points earned in Featured Hold’em tables will not apply to the Omaha High-Roller Club leaderboard, and vice versa.
7. Players will be credited with the relevant prizes at the end of the promotion.
8. The promotion is subject to the terms and conditions of the site.
