Eoin Kennedy

Phil is giving away 7% of his action in the WCOOP $5,200 main event -Event 70-H

Phil will be in the commentary booth today June 8 for the Twitch live stream of WSOP Event #13 kicking off at 5 p.m. EST

You can play some word bingo with us during the stream and win an Elite or Essential membership! (Phil promised not to look at the list!)

To enter

The parent company of PokerStars have announced that they have agreed to buy Sky Betting & Gaming ("SBG") from CVC Capital Partners in cash and stock transactions valued at $4.7 bn.

The transaction will be comprised of $3.6 Billion in addition to 37.9 million newly issued common shares based on the closing price of its common stock on April 20. According to The Stars Group, the aquisition will result in “the world’s largest publicly listed online gaming company”

The press release lists multiple operational and financial benefits to the acquistion

"
Greater revenue diversification and significantly enhanced exposure to sports betting, the world’s largest and fastest growing online gaming segment, as the majority of SBG’s revenues are generated by sports betting.
An increased presence in regulated markets, particularly within the United Kingdom, the world’s largest regulated online gaming market.
The development of sports betting as a second low-cost customer acquisition channel, complementing The Stars Group’s core poker business and enabling more effective cross-sell to players across multiple verticals.
Improved products and technology as a result of the addition of SBG’s innovative casino and sports book offerings, and portfolio of popular mobile apps.
Identified cost synergies of at least $70 million per year.
"

The press release also notes that the acquisition will diversify the StarsGroup revenue base meaning less reliance on Poker. "On a pro forma basis to include the anticipated acquisitions of SBG, CrownBet and William Hill Australia, the Company’s 2017 revenue mix by product would have been 37% poker, 34% sportsbook and 26% casino "

This is not the first time that the Stars Group have attempted to merge with a large gaming operator. In October 2016 Amaya (who have since changed their name to the Stars Group) were in talks with William Hill for a proposed £4.6bn merger. The merger was later called off after William Hill's largest shareholder came out against the deal.

The WSOP has announced that the Big Bling Ante structure will be used for eight of their 78 gold bracelet events this year, one at each of eight price points. The format will also be used across a number of side events.

The Big Blind ante structure whose popularity has been increasing in recent times changes how antes are approached. Rather than each player posting an ante every hand, the Big Blind posts the ante for the entire table, the amount of which will be one big blind. Removing the need for each player to post an ante and dealers to go around the table collecting the antes increase the speed of play and in turn the number of hands that can be dealt per hour.

The WSOP went on to clear up something that has been debated in the poker community with regard to Big Bling ante, “Which is anted first, the Big Bling or the Ante?” The answer for WSOP events will be the Big Bling. They also clarified that "No matter how many chips a participant starts with he/she can always win the entire ante" providing an example to demonstrate how this will work

“For example: the blinds are 4k/8k and the big blind also antes 8k. A participant who is not in the blinds who starts the hand withonly 1k gets involved in a three-way pot against the blinds. If that participant wins, he/she wins 11k (his/her own 1k wager, plus 1k from each opponent, plus the 8k ante). In this scenario, 1 chip can win 11 chips.”

Jamie and Matt staples have complete a bet which will see them receive $150,000 from Bill Perkins.

In March of last year, while the brother were streaming poker from Perkins yacht in the Bahamas, the millionaire hedge fund manager set them the challenge of weighing within one pound of each other with 365 days to achieve the goal. If they succeeded; Bill would hand over $150,000, if they did not; they owed Bill $3,000.

At the start of the bet, Jaime's weight was 304 pounds (137.9 kg) while Matt weighed in at 134 pounds (60.7 kg) . One year after the bet was made both brothers weighed in at an identical 188.3 pounds (85.4 kg). Jeff Gross who also witnessed the initial setting of the bet was the judge for the official weigh in that took place at Jason Sommerville's RunItUp Reno event.

This is not the first time that Bill Perkins has participated in high stakes prop betting. In 2016, Bill paid over $600,000 to Dan Blitzerian after Dan cycled the 320 miles from his house in LA to beyond the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" sign in 48 hours. The same year, he also bet Antonio Esfandiari $50,000 that he couldn’t lunge everywhere he went for 48 hours. Antonio won the bet although got himself disqualified from the 2016 PCA in the process when he urinated in a container at the table during a break. Antonio later apologized for his actions and donated his winnings from that bet to charity

Content and Community Engagement Manager

We are looking for a full-time Content and Community Engagement Manager to start immediately at Run It Once. Our strong preference is for the position to be filled in Malta, but we will consider applications for remote work.

The Content and Community Engagement Manager will be a part of our Marketing Team and will be responsible for all aspects of engaging with our players and the general poker community.

Essential Duties
Develop and implement community engagement strategies across a number of platforms including social media and forums
Monitor and engage with players across all platforms
Design, create and manage promotions and social media campaigns
Develop brand awareness and reputation
Generate, publish and share engaging content

Minimum Requirements
Very strong knowledge and passion for the online poker industry
In-depth knowledge and understanding of social media platforms
Excellent written and oral communication skills
Customer focused with strong people and social skills
Creative and motivated personality
Right to live and work in the EU

Desirable
Experience working on creative and innovative social media campaigns
Experience recording, producing and uploading/distributing original video content
Working knowledge of principles of search engine optimisation for online content
Copywriting experience

Our offer
Challenging tasks within an innovative environment
Personal development opportunities
A welcome working environment
Competitive salary and benefits

Interested?
If you are interested in this position and your skills meet our requirements, please send your application including CV and cover letter to:[email protected] with ‘Content and Community Engagement Manager’ in the subject line.

We are looking forward to your application!!

Arlie Shaban a former Big Brother 2 Canada contestant streamed 1,000 hours of poker over 125 continuous days

Arlie started his stream on Monday November 6, 2017 with a goal of streaming for 50 days straight. That goal soon stretched to 100 consecutive days followed by his final goal of 125 days which he hit on Saturday March 10, 2018.

When Arlie began his self-assigned challenge, his number of Twitch subscribers sat at approximately 140. Over four months and 1,000 hours of streaming later, he is reaping the rewards of his efforts with a subscriber count of almost 50 times his original at 6,936.

Arlie is not the first person to take part in a poker stream marathon. Although not quiet at the level of Arlie: In October 2016, Jaime Staples, Jeff Gross, Kevin Martin and Jamie Staples between them streamed for 169 continuous hours raising over $21,000 in the process for the Michael Phelps foundation

When Run It Once launched in 2012, we quickly became the #1 poker training site with no marketing.

The reason we were able to do that is that we focused on creating a product we were proud of and you responded. Members like you shared their experience with their friends. They did so to help their friends benefit from Run It Once, but they ended up helping us too.

Beyond continuing to work on the quality of Run It Once, we haven't had a way to thank them... (dramatic pause) UNTIL NOW.

Introducing the Run It Once Refer-A-Friend program!

We're starting with a simple system:

If you head to your settings page, you'll notice a "Refer-A-Friend Code." This is your unique link. Anyone who signs up through your link will be eligible to generate points for you.

Anyone who you refer (who hasn't previously had an account) gets you the following: