The 2023 WPT Choctaw Main Event was played from May 5-8 and had 612 $5,000 unique entries, distributing a total of $2.1 million in prizes. Jaffee was the last one standing, managing to weave his way through the field and gather all the chips, as well as the second biggest prize of his career: $400K. When asked what the victory meant to him he told us: “WPT is as prestigious a tour as there is in poker, so winning two main events on their tour is a special accomplishment.”

While Jaffee has 34 cashes and 6 final tables on the World Poker Tour, the recent win in Choctaw is his best memory from all his years playing on the tour: “Obviously winning makes it special to begin with, but I also had tons of friends there cheering me on as well as my parents. Having my parents there to see it firsthand and seeing them as happy as they were definitely made it extra special.”

With his first place finish, he also won a seat in the 2023 WPT World Championship and rose to third place in the WPT Player of the Year rankings. Bin Weng is currently leading the rankings and we asked Jared if he has aspirations of sitting atop the leaderboard: “I doubt I will be able to catch Bin because his lead is so huge. I may only play one or two more events this season and it would likely take another win at least. Anything is possible, but I consider it highly unlikely and it isn’t really something I’m thinking about.”

Jaffee’s first World Poker Tour win came almost a decade ago, back in November 2013 at the WPT bestbet Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble, which had 358 entries pay the $3,500 buy-in. For his first place finish, he took home a prize of $252K and got his name affixed to the (now-called) Mike Sexton Cup. Below is a clip of Jaffee’s interview with the WPT’s Tony Dunst after his victory:

When asked what advice he would give someone who is going to play their first WPT Main Event, Jaffee replied “I would just tell them that the structures are very forgiving. You don’t need to panic if you lose a few pots early on and you should still be in a position where you won’t need to force the issue. Try not to think to far ahead and just focus on the next hand. Also, just enjoy it: they are fun events to play with a great staff!”

We wondered if Jaffee was among those who actively utilize poker training sites, but he said that “To be honest I’m not much of a studier. For me it’s more about getting in reps and playing as much as possible. I’ll also talk hands occasionally with people I think are more studied than myself hoping to grab some extra insight the easy way.”

Here’s a list of the six WPT final tables that Jared has made:

Date	Event	Buy-In	Entries	Result	Prize
January 2010	Southern Poker Championship	$10,000	208	4th	$135,079
August 2010	Legends of Poker	$5,000	462	5th	$86,000
November 2013	Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble	$3,500	358		$252,749
January 2014	Borgata Winter Poker Open	$3,500	1,229	4th	$258,590
October 2019	WPTDeepStacks Pittsburgh	$1,100	386	6th	$14,615
May 2023	Choctaw	$3,800	612		$400,740

The World Poker Tour’s final tables are 6-handed, but Jaffee notably also placed 7th at the 2014 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $167K, 7th at the 2015 WPT Choctaw for $112K, 8th at the 2016 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale for $88K and 8th at the 2021 WPT Venetian for $93K.

His First Cash, Poker’s Triple Crown and December’s Tournaments

Jaffee’s first recorded cash according to HendonMob is a tournament at the 2009 EPT Deuville . When asked what he remembered from that event, he replied “Yeah, I won a seat to the EPT Deauville on PokerStars somewhat accidentally. I thought it was a satellite to something else and next thing I knew I was headed to France. It was a nice trip and a fun experience but honestly at that point I didn’t really know what was going on. I was awful at poker and had no idea what the big time tournament scene was like. I was definitely sort of a deer in headlights, but at the same time it helped solidify that this was something I wanted to pursue and be a part of. So it was a springboard for me.”

With both a WSOP bracelet and WPT titles, Jaffee is just missing an EPT Main Event title to achieve poker’s “Triple Crown”. Is it something he would like to achieve in his career? “I’ve been missing just an EPT title for the Triple Crown now for quite a while, but my EPT experience has been very limited. It would definitely be a very cool accomplishment and I hope to play some EPT’s in the future, but I realize that I’m not likely to play a ton of them so it will be pretty difficult to make it happen. But if I pulled it off, I would definitely find it to be pretty special” he said.

In December the WPT World Championship returns to the Wynn. Jaffee shared his thoughts on the 2022 edition and whether he thinks that this year the tournaments will be even bigger: “I think pretty much everything the Wynn does is top shelf. Last year’s event was tremendous and as soon as it was over, I knew it was there to stay and I was looking forward to playing it again. As far as the field size, I assume it would be similar depending on the exact timing of the WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas. I think having the two series compete is truly unfortunate and undesirable. With that said, I can’t see a time where I won’t support the Wynn and promote their events. I think it’s important to be vocal when venues do things right because sadly that isn’t the norm.”

To finish, Jaffee shared what he enjoyed most about live tournaments: “I think my favorite part of live tournaments is that every time you sit down you get a different experience. Not all of them are good, but never knowing who you are going to be playing with and what you may see definitely makes for an entertaining environment. I’m not a big fan of routine and when it comes to poker tournaments you never know what’s gonna happen from one minute to the next. It’s definitely more my speed.”

*All images courtesy WorldPokerTour.com

Check out some more great interviews here on Cardplayer Lifestyle:

• Scott Eskenazi, 2023 WPT Rolling Thunder champion
• Alex Gray, WPT presenter
• David Costabile, actor and player
• Hili Shakked, former head of 888poker
• Andre Akkari, poker legend from Brazil
• Tom Wheaton and Alec Rome, producers of the documentary “Dreamers”
• Erin Lydon, Poker Power Managing Director
• Kyna England, Poker Power Instructor & 2021 MSPT Player of the Year

At 888, Hili worked his way up to being the Head of Poker, a position that he held for the final five years of his tenure there. To the best of my knowledge, only once before, in 2010, had Hili agreed to do an interview, so it’s a true honor that he said yes when I approached him and asked. We met shortly after his departure from the company and spoke for close to an hour and a half, during which time he opened up about his lengthy career at one of the world’s top online gaming companies.

In addition to sharing the story of his rise to the top and how 888poker climbed to at one point be the #2 online poker room, Hili talked about the many ups and downs he and his department had experienced, how Black Friday was received internally at the company, how he led the department to branch into live poker offerings and partnerships for the first time, and much more.

While Hili wanted his story captured “while the iron was hot” shortly after he left 888, for a variety of reasons he preferred that it remain unpublished “until a later date”. Well, that date has finally arrived.

What follows is a transcript of our interview, which offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how 888poker operates, as well as Hili’s opinions regarding the future of both live and online poker.

Who is Hili Shakked?

So, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. Let’s start off with you telling us a bit about your background prior to getting into the poker industry.

I’m an electronic engineer. I have an MBA in finance. I worked many years with a big Japanese company, doing technology-related investments. I did portfolio management, both stocks and bonds. I did option trading. So, I was focused towards the financial world, and then venture capital investments. Somehow, I eventually found myself in the online gaming sphere. I started with a company called Empire Poker (with the poker team at Empire Online). Poker constituted the vast majority of its business, and that’s where I first learned about the game.

So you didn’t know anything about poker before starting there?

I just played very basic games, draw poker games as a student for pennies and for fun, but I didn’t know how to play Texas Hold’em. In my first week at Empire Online, they told me: “OK, read this, this, and this; these are the rules of poker, learn it.” We had a game at the end of that week, for fun, and I was lucky to win it when really I didn’t understand the game. They thought I was a real genius, but it was just the luck part of poker, and this really helped me a lot to fall in love with the game.

What was your role with the company?

I started as an affiliate manager, then I moved to PPC (pay per click), Google AdWords, making sure that we paid correctly for the traffic we acquired. In parallel, I started understanding how the online poker market works. After some time there, a friend of mine called me to join 888. It was 2007, and my first role at 888 would be to manage the product managers of the software, which was called Pacific Poker back then. I think the name change to 888poker was in 2011.

Anyone who does a little research online can see that 888 was co-founded by a pair of brothers named Avi and Aron Shaked. Are you related to them, and how often do you get that question?

First of all, I’m not related to them. The first person that spoke with me about it explicitly was the late Aron Shaked, himself. He asked me, “Are you with our family?” I said “No, but it’s a great family!”

The Shakeds are very nice people. I think their positive DNA is a big part of the success of 888, and we’ve always had a good relationship over the years.

2007-2011 at 888poker

Back when you started in September 2007, it was a very different online poker landscape. This was just after the UIGEA was passed, and PokerStars and Full Tilt were riding high in the United States. Can you describe what things were like for you when you first joined 888? How big was the poker department?

It was a very small team, two product managers and a bunch of developers. This was the pure poker team. Roughly speaking, in addition to the small “pure poker” team, there were other important technology teams that developed key components that were also used by the other product verticals of 888, including the product teams (IT), the back office, payments, etc. But we were all focused on poker. There wasn’t a lot of poker know-how; when I first joined the company, I was surprised to see that more than half of the people didn’t play poker.

At the time, frankly speaking, the product looked very bad. The the first thing we did was put together a document of 150 things that we need to fix at 888poker. I showed it to my manager, and he looked at me and said “OK, just do it.”

So we prioritized the items and dealt with them one at a time. I can recall a couple of them, like a new player had to open an account for real money and a different account for play money; you could not combine it. There was no mechanism for a loyalty program, no points were counted based on anything. There were many, many bugs — disconnections, terrible software; really unplayable. But even so we were still making very good money because poker was growing strongly back then.

Later on we learned that in retrospect the fact that our software wasn’t so great actually gave our online poker room a bit of an advantage, since there were not that many professional players playing it because it was unplayable for the more serious players due to connectivity issues and the lack of basic functionality. Over the years, I met many, many professional players who had specifically started on Pacific Poker because it was a very soft poker field. Anyhow, we were small. On the PokerScout rankings we were listed very low, as #17.

There were so many other competitors around us and above us. We were a no-name, we were not a factor in the online poker field, and nonetheless we were very profitable.

Poker legend Eli Elezra visits with Hili and his team at 888poker headquarters

At what point did the product switch from being called Pacific Poker to 888poker?

It was part of a bigger change by the Marketing Division. For example, our casino product was called Casino-on-Net.

I remember those days; got a LOT of popup ads for that back in the day!

It was very successful, but it looked terrible. Each product looked different, with different names. There was no umbrella value in marketing the 888 brand. So it was a very good move in 2011 by the marketing team to rebrand both name-wise and visual-wise the names, so we’d have 888poker and 888casino and 888sport.

What else was going on in the company during your early years there? Any interesting promotions you remember being involved with?

We did a very big promotion for the WSOP back in 2010. We called it “88 Ways to the WSOP.” We gave away many packages through rake races. In the first month, it looked amazing. Numbers rocketed. The next month, the numbers plateaued. After that the numbers went sharply down to the point where they were pretty terrible. We didn’t understand what was going on! Where were the players? This was actually a pretty big crisis for us. As a matter of fact, the company was very close to shifting to another platform for poker.

But there was one factor that still gave me hope, namely new front-end software. We called it Poker 6 at the time, and it had been in development for about a year. It was supposed to be launched in the summer of 2010. So we got sort of a “stay of execution” to see if the new software would help us boost our numbers back again.

Parallel to this, I still tried to figure out why our promotion didn’t work as planned. After checking out the activity on some poker forums, I saw a couple of posts from people complaining that the level of play on Pacific Poker had become too tough. Right there and then I started thinking that perhaps there was a problem in the way that we did business in poker. In other words, that incentivizing more rake is actually counterproductive to the business because it brings the good players, the skilled players, and they just kill everything around them. The lesser skilled players go away and it ends up being worse for everyone. That was my conclusion, which I brought to the CEO of the company.

Wow. So you identified the problem, but now you had to come up with a solution…

Exactly. The CEO agreed with me and said “what do you suggest we do?”I was very happy he agreed with my conclusions, and had a couple of basic ideas regarding what to do, but told him that I wanted to think about it more and come up with more specific plans.

I eventually went back to him and told him that we needed to completely overhaul the way that we did our marketing: to stop catering to the high-raking players and go to the other side of the spectrum, the casual players. From regulars to recreationals; from regs to recs.

This was a very counter-intuitive idea. The VIPs in every business are always the customers that pay the most commission, right? Fly more, buy more… get more! But poker is a very peculiar and different type of business. Because of the skill element, the good players play a lot because they make money. They play many tables concurrently for many hours, but by doing so, they be definition kill the rest of the players. So why do we need to further incentivize the winning players? Why do we need to spend more of our marketing budget trying to acquire winning players. My perspective was that it’s the recreational players who we needed to start treating like VIPs instead.

Of course, we NEVER blocked or harmed winning players in any way except shifting the bonuses to the long tail of the players.

That’s really forward-thinking, to do that back in 2010 already.

Yes, and it was a long, long process within 888, to convince the relevant people that we need to work differently in poker. Whereas casino games and other house games should continue to work the same way vis a vis VIPs, poker is different.

Another big change was on the B2B side of things. We were in a network at the time with a bunch of B2B partners. Then I went to senior management once again and I told them that B2B poker simply didn’t make sense because the way we had been incentivizing our partners was exactly like incentivizing the good players. Once again, there were a lot of politics involved in this issue and a lot of talking and thinking had to be done, but finally management understood that we needed to make changes, which we did gradually.

First, we stopped accepting newcomers to the network. Then, we looked at little ways that we could limit existing partners from harming the network. Of course we made sure to honor our contracts. It was a long process – it took years – but eventually we finally became exclusively B2C. It was a very profitable and very important move to make, as it made no sense for the main brand to invest in marketing to the casual players while our B2B partners would then go ahead and cater to the high-volume players.

Of course, you need to be in sync.

It wasn’t a simple decision, but it needed to be done to grow the business. We also made a similar move with affiliates, with affiliate revenue share deals. Our affiliate rev. share partners were bringing in the high-raking players, as this was the most profitable player type for them. Effectively, the rake-base revenue share deals were counter-effective since we were over-paying for players that we could acquire for significantly less. So, we had to change gradually the deals with the affiliate rev. share partners.

That certainly sounds like a huge change in direction and operations. And you’re saying all of this happened already before Black Friday?

Some of it; it was a process that took a couple of years. We had to map out all of the problematic areas, then implement our solutions gradually.

Black Friday… was Wonderful!

OK, so let’s talk about April 15, 2011, Black Friday. You already mentioned that you guys weren’t operating in the United States at the time. What was Black Friday like at 888? To what extent did things change? Was everything in your department sort of turned upside down?

We had a number of conference calls deep into the night. We believed that the other operators were going to try and go after PokerStars’ and Full Tilt’s reg players, so we would try and lure away their recreational players. We quickly devised a game plan regarding the type of marketing we were going to do, and we began huge promotions specifically targeting the more casual players.

So 888poker wasn’t affected in any sort of negative way?

We were definitely affected, but it was almost entirely positive. Black Friday was a blessing for us. We got tons of players, specifically the type of players that we wanted and needed. So we didn’t combat the other brands that fought for the regs, offering big rakeback and stuff like that. As mentioned, we wanted to incentivize the long tail players. So, it was very good for us.

So when that happens, you probably had a huge influx of players. I imagine that that’s sort of the catalyst for some growth. Is that the type of thing that your department saw?

Yes, we had a bunch of growth catalysts in a pretty short period of time. The new software, Poker 6, turned out to be a big success. The second one was the closing of Full Tilt. The third one was the notion of changing the strategy, going after the recreational players. Then there was the shifting of the marketing budget towards recreational players, and the gradual closing of the B2B network. All of this combined gave us several years of ongoing growth, where the majority of the competitors were either closing or merging or just drifting down.

By 2013-2014, we became the #2 online poker room in the world. It was a huge, huge success! At that point, we faced another hurdle, our loyalty program. While our implied rakeback was far lower than the rakeback our competitors gave, I knew that these incentives were not allocated in line with our strategy, since it was based on rake, and it took us a very long time to crack this challenge and come up with an innovative plan that took our players completely by surprise. It was a plan that was closer to “social gaming” rather than real money poker.

In addition, we came up with an innovative formula that helped us to (much) better evaluate the value of players to our business, very remotely related to rake. It’s a very complex algorithm, kind of a “black box” within 888, and it gave us a better visibility to the value of the players. We implemented it around 2013-2014. At the end of the day, from a business perspective, an online poker room needs to acquire players and pay the right amount for each acquisition. We then need to look at the players and their behavior and estimate their projected lifetime value, and adjust accordingly in terms of marketing spend.

So, in the wake of Black Friday, it seems like everything was going right. People were probably loving going to work every day, seeing the growth…

We had several great years at 888poker. We felt that everything that we were doing was working. Of course, we made mistakes, but the mistakes were relatively small amid the bigger picture.

I can recall one mistake. We had a project called “Play With Friends” with the idea that players could set up a home game with webcams while on the 888poker platform. We did some surveys before, and players indicated they would give it a try. We did some live testing and players loved it, so we felt comfortable going into the project. We spent a lot of money developing it and marketing it.

It was a complete failure.

With that said, it’s my belief that we always need to try new things and innovate in poker. Some work, some don’t. If we fail, we need to accept it, cut our losses in time, and try to learn lessons from it.

Making America Gr888

One of the obviously very good developments for 888poker was when the United States market opened back up for business on a state level. Nevada regulated poker in May of 2013 and it was followed by Delaware and New Jersey. You guys were basically in the best possible spot during this period of time. You pretty much had exclusivity. What was your game plan going in?

So, first we have a good partner in America, Caesars Interactive Entertainment, which owns the WSOP brand. We did Nevada with them. They operate their own WSOP.com-branded site using our technology, the 888 software platform.

Then we won the Delaware bid, which I feel was a good achievement. Then, when New Jersey came online, we finally launched with the 888poker and 888casino brands there. Recently the company also launched sports betting in New Jersey with the 888sport brand.

In New Jersey we faced tough competition from MGM/party, and even more once PokerStars entered that market. So, it’s a very competitive market.

I believe at the end of the day that the opportunity in America is really to have a big shared liquidity network. With Pennsylvania and Michigan now online, and hopefully New York or California or some other large states will also join at some point.

Would you say that there’s more of a positive outlook now than in years past about the U.S. online poker market?

Yes, the outlook is positive. It’s no longer a question of “if,” but rather “when” more states will join. Of course, every state will still have its own requirements. At the beginning, for example, New Jersey insisted that the data center would be within the premises of a casino in Atlantic City. This was very challenging for our IT team, but they managed to find a solution in one of the hotels.

I believe that now that there’s shared interstate player pools, each new state to regulate online poker will join the American network. It will be interesting to see whether at one stage, the U.S. network will also merge with the European regulated market networks. If so, it would be great for business.

Moving Up in the Poker World

So, 2014 comes along and you get offered a promotion to become the new Head of Poker at 888. How did it feel for you personally to have reached that sort of a milestone? Did you come into that position with a list of goals or maybe another 150 problems that need to be solved?

It was a small promotion. On the organizational chart, this was actually a horizontal shift from managing the Product and Delivery to managing the Poker’s Marketing P&L (profit and loss). This change gave me a different perspective. The main difference was that I started having the responsibility to manage a very big marketing budget.

While I was on the Product side, I led the major strategy change that obviously influenced our Marketing, so once I got promoted to the Marketing position, I felt in the beginning that it would be a walk in the park and that I’d just continue to grow the business.

Very quickly, I realized that marketing is also very complex. There is not just “one marketing thing,” but rather a whole world of so many activities that are all classified as marketing. There is branding, there is performance marketing, there is content, and everything gets blended in together.

My first focus was in working on that “black box” algorithm I mentioned earlier, constructing and refining a usable metric, to measure player activity. By addressing this, performance marketing became much more reliable. Then, my focus was more on branding, content creation, and distribution.

You mentioned that 888poker eventually grew to become the #2 online poker operator, climbing up from #17 when you first joined the company. What did it feel like, to you personally and as a department, to have risen so high up the ladder?

Internally, we all felt it a huge sense of achievement. We were very happy. It was pretty much the same team running together for five, six, seven years. There were about 50 of us on the technology side and another 30-40 of us on the marketing side. We felt very proud, that we had accomplished something very big, with each person being able to feel their contribution to the team’s overall success. It was not just a one-man show; it was really the joint effort of so many people. It wasn’t even just the poker team but also other units in 888 helped us out a lot.

We threw a party the first day that we were ranked #2. Someone brought a cake with the PokerScout listings on it. It was really an achievement, after a lengthy process with a lot of hard work. We looked at the charts every day and got excited each time we moved up a spot. Hitting #2 was amazing.

Did your rise up the charts change your outlook and the way you guys operated within the industry, towards players, and towards the public?

Yes. We started to understand that we were very visible. I think from time that we were around #5, other companies started looking at our business model. Before that, nobody cared about 888poker. I know that one of the companies hired people to reverse-engineer 888poker. Now all of the big companies, perhaps with the exception of partypoker, are implementing pretty much the same strategy we had started using years prior, namely focusing on recreational players rather than the regs.

The Live Poker Scene

So let’s talk about live poker a little bit. At some point, 888poker decided to do something that other companies were doing and start hiring brand ambassadors. Remind us, approximately when was this and what sort of decision-making was involved in saying, “OK, we’re going to go ahead and start doing that”? How did you decide specifically which players to approach to represent the brand?

In the beginning, it was more of an opportunistic approach. In the beginning we only had Shane Warne, the cricket player, as a Tier 1 brand ambassador not only for 888poker, but for all of the verticals.

At some point, just before I joined the B2C, around 2012-2013, two players who we sponsored at the WSOP Main Event went deep. Some others approached us with very expensive deals, with very little value. The idea of sponsoring players was new for our team; none of us had really done it before. Over the years, we’ve improved a lot at being proactive in terms of finding the right ambassadors that we want. They have to have the right mix of poker skills, social influence, great interpersonal relationships, and fit in with our corporate culture. There’s also a geographic component to it, generally speaking.

We are very happy with the relationships we’ve developed with our ambassadors, as well as the bond that our ambassadors have struck among themselves. It’s very, very good. We’re friends, we go out together, and we meet on many occasions. There is a very good flow of information and feedback in both directions. We listen to them because they have some good ideas and many times we ask them very tough questions, and vice versa. 888poker is always honest and transparent with its ambassadors. I feel that they enjoy being part of the 888 family. And again, on a business level, we have much better, more cost-effective relationships in place than in years past when we’d just slap a patch on a player and hope for the best. Nowadays, to just patch someone up has relatively little value.

You also ventured at some point into other uncharted territory for your brand, namely doing live poker festivals. At what point was that decision made, and what influenced your decision to say, OK, we’re going to start doing 888Live poker events and get out there in the world?

I believe that once we became #3 or #4, we realized that we couldn’t just remain an online poker business exclusively, and that part of the business was about being closer to the players. We started with a couple of attempts at different types of live events. In the beginning, it was more of a fun, silly type of poker, like going to a ski resort and having a ski weekend with some poker mixed in, or going to Cyprus and having some sea fun, and then also playing poker.

Then we added more poker to the content, and reduced the fun part. At the end of the day, 888poker wants to give poker players what they want. Of course, it’s still always important to keep the poker events fun, with parties, etc. It’s an ongoing thing, we learn which destinations players prefer. Improving the live offering remains an ongoing process.

There’s a lot of poker tours and festivals out there these days, so what would you say is something that you’ve always wanted the unique selling point to be? What sets the 888Live poker festivals apart from the competition

We never aimed to try and host the huge buy-in tournaments with the largest prize pools. We also didn’t try to cater to the low end of the spectrum with very cheap tournaments. Like the online product, the aim is to capture the recreational players who wish to compete for a decent prize. In so many of our competitors’ live events, we often see mostly professionals reaching the final stages of the tournaments. At 888poker events, there’s usually a great mix of players right until the very end of each tournament.

Let’s talk a little bit about sponsorships and partnerships, something you were obviously very heavily involved in with your position. 888poker made some very big waves in the industry when it first partnered up with the WSOP. Do you remember what year that was?

The partnership started out small, with baby steps, and eventually grew to the full WSOP sponsorship in 2013-2014.

And then again, you forged another big partnership with Poker Central/PokerGO, and its various live events that they run.

Yes, that partnership began shortly after their company was founded.

Is there anything you could say about these deals and how you envisioned them in a certain way? How have the deals evolved over time?

I think the deals are very good for all parties involved, and I believe that beyond numbers it’s also in large part due to the personnel, the people behind the deals. It’s not just  that brand names are doing deals – PokerGO, WSOP, 888 – but it’s the people involved. We’ve always had excellent personal relationships with them.

Of course there are some misunderstandings, some small things along the way because it’s major deals after all. But what’s great is that usually just a short phone call solves everything. Again, this is what’s so good and important about those personal relationships. It’s not just about the letters of a contract; people communicating with each other are able to fix things on the go with minimal friction.

I’ve seen you there at the WSOP these last few years, and of course you’ve done a good bit of travel to the other 888Live events and other festivals that 888poker has sponsored around the world. What was your favorite part of the traveling and getting outside the office cubicle every once in a while?

All of the travels were great! During the travel, is when I had the opportunity to speak with other people, with the players and with the partners. Plus, the player parties were always fun!

Hili with international soccer superstar Neymar at the WSOP

In many cases, we also did focus groups around the events where we also invite some of the players and some of the 888poker ambassadors to really talk about how things are going, how we can be better, and to hear their feedback and share future plans. Sometimes we’d show them prototypes of new products and share a few business ideas, on which we’d get priceless input back from them.

What did you do during your free time during those trips? Do you play a little poker, perhaps?

Unfortunately I cannot play in the 888Live events. I could play in non-888 events of course, if I really wanted to.

Cash games? Tournaments?

Usually cash games because I don’t have enough time to play a full tournament. I usually play for low stakes. I’m OK. I used to be a very good player. At some point, I was actually a semi-grinder, playing 12 tables concurrently. Eventually, though, the level of the game became too tough, so I don’t really play online anymore. But when I get a chance in a land-based casino, I play low stakes games; it’s fun.

Hili playing poker in Vienna

What do you love most about poker?

The challenge to win. It’s not about the money for me because I’m not playing for large amounts, but I enjoy when I feel that I understand the situation properly, when I make the right reads, figuring out what the other players have, and managing to make my opponents commit mistakes.

I also learn from my mistakes, and I still make many mistakes when I play. If I get lucky in a hand, maybe I’m excited to win, but I’m very upset that I made a mistake. By contrast, when I’m losing because I’m unlucky, I feel OK because I know that I played well.

What’s Does the Future Hold for Poker?

So over the last while, competition has gotten tougher in the online poker realm. Of course, 888poker’s still a powerhouse, but it’s not #2 anymore. In general, what would you attribute that to?

Yes. There were two trajectory changes in poker in the last two years, from 2016 or so, and they happened almost concurrently.

One was PokerStars moving to the recreational model, changing their loyalty program. They started doing many things that we were already doing for years at 888poker. So, it was a big challenge when they started competing with us on “our territory.”

The other change was partypoker. After their acquisition by GVC, partypoker really woke up the business. They invested a lot of money and, lucky for them, PokerStars moved to the recreational space, so the reg area opened up. They managed to get many players on board and to make very attractive offers both online and live.

Instead of being a duopoly, the industry became much more competitive among very good companies that invested a lot of money in the game. So, things weren’t as easy as they used to be for 888poker. On top of that, there are other networks doing well. Winamax is doing very well; they have a great product, and with the shared liquidity between Spain and France, they’ve also managed to grow. I think that they’re doing great. Then there is the Indonesian company that’s now #2, IDN. They’ve got a lot of microstakes players, but I’m not very familiar with their offering.

On top of all that, poker itself is changing. It’s definitely a different world.

I think everyone in the industry would agree that regulation is a very good thing. It’s necessary for a mature industry to be successful. But at the same time, regulation also means that there are tons of rules to follow, and it can make it very difficult to generate revenue and be profitable. Now, 888 is doing fine, it’s publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, so no one’s going to go ahead and feel sorry or cry a sad song. With that said, what sort of issues have been the most challenging on that front to try and overcome when you have targets to meet as a business?

So, first of all I think that regulation is great for the industry. I believe that we’ll see more consolidation in the coming years, with fewer companies, but with all the big ones fully aligned with regulation.

Regulation also presents plenty of new marketing opportunities within each of the regulated jurisdictions for operators to advertise offline, on TV, radio, and other mainstream mediums. This de facto increases the potential of the market.

Of course there are taxes to pay for this, but there will be fewer true competitors because the small companies don’t have the resources – both in terms of manpower and technology – to be in compliance and get regulated in so many jurisdictions. Regulations are different in each country and they’re constantly changing. It was certainly a challenge for us.

The biggest downside that I felt at 888 – and I think it’s happening everywhere actually – is that the majority of our work focused on being compliant with all the regulations. There’s just not enough creativity, not enough pure product improvement. This is a very logical progression for a mature industry, but I think more innovation is needed overall.

Reflections on a Gr888 Career

We’ve talked a lot about a lot of the ups and a lot of the downs over your years at 888poker. What would you say have been your favorite times or some highlights from your time in the poker industry?

I think going from nowhere to being a major player; it was six, seven years of just a really great feeling. To keep on improving every single day; it was good.

I also took a lot of pride in the release of Poker 6, our new software. It was really smooth, without almost any bugs. We got great feedback from players. Another highlight was the first time we ran a $1 million guaranteed tournament at 888poker, and we covered it easily. It was new ground for us.

My tenure at 888 was like a marathon of small improvements, with a few big leaps, that all added up over time to something big. I played a key role in turning our MTT offering from a losing offering, due to failing to hit the guarantees, into a very stable and profitable business. Looking at the charts, it’s still amazing to see the growth in profitability.

Just like for a poker player, a nice graph. No huge jumps, just nice, slow and steady.

Yes, yes. I think this is the best way to describe it. To feel that we executed the right strategy at the right time.

Well, after over a decade at 888, you decided that it was time to cash in your chips, and to move on to the next adventure. What’s next for you?

Many people have asked me why I left 888. It was a great job; a dream job. I love the game. I love the company. I love the people; they’re people I hired and who I enjoyed being with. The compensation and working conditions were good, of course, and I’ve gotten to travel to lots of nice places for the events.

But I honestly feel that there is a systematic problem in online poker. You see it today, and you’ll see it more a couple years from now. It’s something that some people talk about once in a while, but I’ve been feeling it for a long time.

Whoever invented Texas Hold’em didn’t realize how great he was in finding a game with an amazing balance between luck and skill. If you look at chess, the game is great, but it’s only skill. If you look at roulette, it’s a great game, but it’s only luck. So in poker, Hold’em especially, the balance between luck and skill is actually the reason for the success of the game.

The luck component of poker is part of the physics of the game, it’s mathematical and cannot change. The chances of hitting your draw will always be identical regardless of where you play or your skill level. Skill level, on the other hand, is something that is manageable. Over the years, people have kept on improving at the game and sharing their know-how in books, forums, and via poker training sites.

So the equilibrium between skill and luck actually is breaking. There is more and more and more skill, but luck remains the same, so the beauty of the game – the reason for the huge success of the game – is gradually breaking. It’s happening mainly online. In live poker, because you can play at only table at a time, it’s different. Moreover, in live tournaments the element of luck is greater than in a cash game.

Live poker is booming. The 2018 WSOP Main Event was the second-largest ever. There are great tournaments being hosted by PokerStars, by partypoker, in Rozvadov, and so many other locations. The 888Live events are great too, and there are no plans for stopping to put them on. Poker programming is doing great on PokerGO.

Hili with Phil Hellmuth, after the latter’s 15th WSOP bracelet victory

In the live scene, the effect of skill is lower, so it continues to grow because people love the game. Online, however, the game is much more repeatable, plus you can play at numerous tables simultaneously. There are also more and more artificial intelligence programs out there. I believe that 888poker and other sites still catch the bots quite easily, but in the long run, the bots will be smarter and harder to detect.

But even if not, there are “human bots” now. All the GTO guys playing the nearly perfect game. The chances for new players to beat them are infinitesimally small. So, from a business perspective, the value of new players keeps dropping because they’re losing too quickly and then don’t want to play again.

This is not a catastrophic thing that will happen from today to tomorrow, or from a year ago to now, but I can see the decline. If you look carefully at some of the statistics – I’m not talking about 888poker’s numbers, but rather about the statistics of some delineated markets – you can see it there. I’m afraid that the drop in online will just increase in steepness. This is something we noticed at 888, which persisted regardless of our marketing, acquisition, and customer retention efforts.

All of that is a long-winded way of saying that, for me, I personally want to be in a growing business, where things that we do have bigger effect. In a declining business it’s very difficult to achieve success. Also, 11 years with one company – and it’s a great company – is a lot of time. I feel that the next stage for me will be outside of the poker industry.

Well, I noted right at the outset of this interview that this is the first time, at least to the best of my knowledge, that you’ve ever opened up publicly about your role and the work that you’ve done so diligently over the years at 888poker. You have always attributed the successes to team efforts, even within this interview, and you let the other team members and personnel at 888 shine and receive the attention and the public credit.

Of course, all of the accomplishments are not something that one person can achieve by himself or herself, but it certainly does take leadership of the highest quality. Hili, I’m really glad that you’re finally getting some well-deserved credit for your hard work. I want to thank you once again for agreeing to sit with me here and to share your story, the story of 888poker, and I wish you the best of luck moving forward.

Yeah, great. Robbie, thank you so much for listening to all this history. It feels great to finally tell it.

Post Script

As a reminder, the conversation Hili and I had took place a little over four years ago, and of course a lot has happened in the poker world and with 888poker since that time. After leaving 888, Hili joined Neogames, where he is managing their Games Studio for the past four years. The company is the world leading eInstant studio (instant games for online lotteries) and their current growth trajectory reminds Hili of “the good old days” back at 888poker.

The full schedule is jam-packed with all types of tournaments, and there are buy-ins to fit every bankroll, as well as numerous satellites to help players qualify for the events above their usual levels. Lasting for four full weeks, this year’s MILLIONS Online will feature tournaments of different formats, from classic ones to 6-max events to the always popular PKOs.

With the series about to kick off, we had the opportunity to catch up with Matt Staples, a popular Twitch streamer and a partypoker ambassador, who was kind enough to answer our questions about the upcoming online poker series.

Q&A with Matt Staples

We can only imagine your already-busy schedule is about to get even busier. What are your plans for the series? Will you be going full throttle to get the maximum volume, or will you pick and choose specific events to play?

MILLIONS Online is always one of the busiest months of the year for me, but it’s also one that I most look forward to. I plan to play every event that is scheduled currently. This is where partypoker has some of its biggest guarantees and the title of MILLIONS Online champion is a very prestigious one, so I’ll be going all out to try and win.

Are there any tournaments on the schedule that you are particularly looking forward to, besides the $2 million guaranteed Main Event?

The Super 500 PKO and the $1,050 6-Max PKO Championships are the two that caught my eye. Both events have quite different structures, formats and player pools that are interesting to me.

Generally speaking, the schedule looks like an exciting one, as you can play into the money on Day 1s, and there will be limited late registration and limited re-entry, which are always things I like to see.

You are very active on Twitch, so can we expect to see most of your action covered live? Do you plan to stream every session during MILLIONS Online?

All MILLIONS Online events and sessions that I play this year will be live-streamed on my channel. I don’t plan to play off-stream, unless I quickly decide I need to make a Day 2.

You’ve been a member of partypoker Team Online since 2019. How has the journey been so far and would you say you’ve been able to achieve your personal poker goals while also producing top-quality streaming content? Do you find streaming distracting at times, making it harder to focus on the games, or is it something that becomes sort of second nature with time?

The journey with partypoker has been awesome. There have been a lot of changes since I arrived back in 2019, in terms of my role and the opportunities I have been given. It’s truly been amazing to be teamed up with a site like this.

Striking a balance between poker goals and content/streaming goals is always tough. With the level of play being so high on Twitch, you need to find time to fit both into the equation. That said, prioritizing content and streaming has always been my approach because the opportunities and depth it adds to my life far outweigh any extra time or focus I would have from being off-stream.

As someone who’s been an integral part of the streaming community, what’s your overall take on poker on Twitch in 2022? How big of a role do you think it continues to play in popularizing the game and bringing it to the masses? What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a poker streamer?

The transformation that Twitch poker has taken in the last few years has been quite intense. The streamers are becoming better poker players, the viewers are looking for higher level play and are also getting used to much bigger buy-ins. It’s evolved into a much more competitive and tough space.

There is always going to be room for every type of stream, but looking through the top streams, the level of play and average buy-in are both quite high. This has created the necessity to work hard in areas of poker study and volume, while also creating high-level content.

Twitch will continue to be an important part of popularizing the game. Where else can you watch the real deal when it comes to online poker? I love the true grind, day in day out, the wins and the losses. We have seen that people like to watch live and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

What comes next for you after MILLIONS Online? Do you foresee any big changes in your near future that you’d like to talk about?

I stream and grind the online schedule year-round, so I won’t be taking any trips or time off until MILLIONS UK in December. I’m going to try to match my deep run in the MILLIONS Europe Main Event in Barcelona, but hopefully I’ll avoid bubbling the final table this time!

July / August have been my best results as a poker pro excluding the Milly deep runs. Next few months will be quite big so hoping for some more heat. pic.twitter.com/cWPuWdsWVT

— Matthew Staples (@MattStaplesPKR) August 16, 2022

A Massive $2,000,000 GTD Main Event

It’s not every day that an online tournament promises a prize pool of $2,000,000, so the poker community is buzzing about the partypoker MILLIONS Online Main Event. The tournament does come with a hefty buy-in of $3,200, but partypoker has sprinkled various satellites and qualifiers throughout the schedule to give pretty much everyone a chance to try and claim their seat in the big one.

In fact, players will have a chance to begin their Main Event journey for as little as one cent. Of course, those who start at this lowest level will have quite a few hurdles to go through before getting the coveted seat, but stranger things have certainly happened in online poker. There are $22 and $109 Phase 1 and Phase 2 tournaments leading up to weekly finals, where 10 Main Event seats are guaranteed.

Rich Action Across the Board

If the Main Event is out of your reach and you would rather play actual tournaments instead of satellites, the partypoker MILLIONS Online schedule has you covered. To kick things off, there are two PKO Opener events, guaranteeing $250,000 and $100,000, respectively.

The Mini Main Event is there as well, offering a smaller but still very juicy guarantee of $500,000 for a tenth of the price of the big one.

There are many tournaments with low three-figure buy-ins ($109 and $162) as well, featuring very respectable six-figure guarantees, so you don’t need a massive bankroll to get in on the action.

And if these still feel out of reach, don’t be afraid to give some satellites a chance. Even if they don’t perfectly align with your bankroll management, keep in mind that the action in these events is usually quite soft, and the value of qualifying for and final-tabling one of these major tournaments could be a real turning point in your poker career!

—

Matt Staples image credit: Mickey May

That’s what the poker playing public sees. Behind the scenes, however, what people don’t see is the talented team of professionals making it all happen. That team is led by WPT Global General Manager Alex Scott. A longtime poker industry veteran, Alex brings worlds of experience to his position.

I’ve known Alex for many years now, and he’s even been a past contributor right here at Cardplayer Lifestyle. I couldn’t think of a better person to speak with to learn more about the company that’s been making such big waves. I’m grateful he was open to doing this interview, and for his exceptional openness and authenticity throughout. I have no doubt that whatever high regard you already hold the WPT Global brand in, it’ll be further boosted after you read what Alex has to say.

The internet is littered with online poker rooms. WPT Global is basically the newest kid on the block, having launched in mid-April. What would you say are the “unique selling points” (USPs) that set WPT Global apart from the other more established online poker rooms out there?

AS: Our most important USPs can be expressed in just two words: ‘fun’ and ‘fair’.

‘Fun’ because that has been our main focus when developing the product — our games are much more fun than our competitors’ because of the enormous liquidity pool we share with our partners in Asia, and because of how we limit the number of highly-skilled pros at each table. Everyone has a better chance to win in this environment. Besides this, we’ve built fun features like bomb pots, mandatory straddles, and more to bring drama and action to the games.

‘Fair’ because from the very beginning we have invested enormously in technology and people to make the games as fair as possible. We use deep-learning techniques and other advanced tools to detect collusion, bots and the use of real-time assistance. By eliminating these types of parasitic players from our site, we make the game better for everybody else.

READ MORE: 5 Reasons Why Amateurs Should Play at WPT Global

Perhaps understandably, there’s still some confusion out there regarding “what exactly WPT Global is”, as a lot of poker players out there think that it’s the World Poker Tour’s online poker room. Could you please clarify that point?

AS: The World Poker Tour is a hugely popular TV show, broadcast in hundreds of countries worldwide, but for obvious reasons it has only partnered with online gaming operators in a few key markets. We knew there was demand for a high-quality poker experience in many other parts of the world. We developed WPT Global as a way of giving players in over 50 countries the chance to play poker with a brand that they trust.

We licence the WPT brand and are a separate company to the WPT, but we are very close with our friends there and we take our responsibilities to the WPT brand very seriously.

We are the first new online poker room to launch internationally in years, and with the WPT brand behind us we believe we have an excellent chance to grow, and bring our offering to players all over the world.

READ MORE: WPT Global Room Review

Launching a new online poker room takes a massive amount of effort behind the scenes. WPT Global is only about four months old, but I’m hoping you could clue us in to the activity at company headquarters prior to launch. When were you brought on board to begin steering the ship? Plus, it takes a village to run an online poker room, and that’s a team you were instrumental in putting together. Can you describe that process for us and approximately how many employees/departments there are in the company?

AS: I joined WPT Global in early April, about two weeks before we launched. Prior to that, lots of people in the company had been eagerly working away to prepare — integrating with payment processors, preparing marketing plans, getting us licenced to operate, working with our technology partner to refine the software, and more.

As a startup, one of our crucial challenges is growing the team so we can scale up. Thankfully, we have the WPT brand behind us, and all of our staff work remotely, meaning we can hire the most talented people, wherever they are in the world. We’ve grown all of our teams significantly in the past few months and I expect to continue growing at a fast pace in the future.

WPT Global Timeline: Charting the Course of Online Poker’s Newest Room

The team behind WPT Global has a combined decades of experience in the online gaming industry. Players just see the brand name, and of course that’s plenty trustworthy, but could you please give us an idea of the types of experience you and your team have that further give WPT Global that well-deserved credibility as an online poker room?

AS: In my leadership team we have decades of experience in senior online gaming roles.

Often we have been frustrated in the past, as we’ve had big ideas, but very limited resources to achieve them. Well, now we have big ideas, and everything we need to make them happen, which is very exciting!

Our technology was built by a different company, whose staff have hundreds of years of combined experience in the gaming business as well as expertise in AI, machine learning, and big data analytics.

Game integrity is a very hot topic these days in the online poker realm, and for good reason. What procedures and processes does WPT Global have in place to ensure game integrity and that players funds are safe and secure?

AS: All of our player funds are segregated and protected at all times, and we cannot touch that money for operational reasons. This is very important to me, as anyone who has followed my work in the past will know. We intend to protect player funds far in excess of what the regulator requires, and we will be continually upping our game in this respect.

Game Integrity is a different matter. We did extensive due diligence when we chose our technology supplier, and chose a partner that had very advanced data and tech for preventing collusion, the use of bots, and RTA, and had already proven that technology at scale with a large network. We have built a team of poker experts to use those tools to keep our games as fair as possible, and given our past experience in the industry, we’re extremely confident that we have the leading all-round solution for Game Integrity.

READ MORE: A Cyber Security Expert’s Assessment of A5 Labs Challenge to the Online Poker Industry

It seems like WPT Global has very actively embraced the world of NFTs, fully integrating it into your promotional and marketing activity to increase player engagement. Can you talk about this for a bit, and explain why this is an approach/field the company has set its sights on from the get-go?

AS: We know that there is a lot of crossover between the crypto community and the poker community, and it’s our job to make it as easy as possible for people to use their crypto assets with us.

I’m very excited about our NFTs — they are totally different, and far from just a token on a chain. Our NFTs carry real value, as they will give their owners access to special features and promotions that are exclusive to NFT holders. We also have ideas about how the NFTs can be used to authenticate a person’s real identity, to improve trust in the games across multiple operators, but these are a little further down the road.

Let’s talk for a moment about payment methods. Beyond more traditional deposit/withdrawal options – such as wire transfer, Visa, and Skrill – WPT Global has also embraced some newer ones, like cryptocurrency. Could you give us the lowdown, as well as what other payment methods you’re looking to add in the future?

AS: Our goal is pretty simple: we want to make it as easy as possible for you to deposit and withdraw your money, in every market where we offer our product. To do that, we have to dramatically improve the cashier experience, and offer all of the deposit methods that you would expect to see in your country. Crypto was an obvious choice, given the overlap between the poker and crypto communities, as I mentioned earlier, and we have lots of ideas about how we can make crypto easier to use for deposits and withdrawals.

WPT Global offers players both cash games and tournaments, specifically the poker variants of No Limit Hold’em and Short Deck (6+ Hold’em). Here at Cardplayer Lifestyle, we’re big proponents of Mixed Games. Are there plans to add any other poker variants in the near future?

AS: Yes, but we’re keeping these under our hat for now. One of our key objectives when launching any new game is to be able to keep that game fair and secure, as we do with the existing games. As much as I personally love mixed games, just as you do, we won’t ever compromise integrity to spread more variants.

While many players are delighted to have opened accounts on WPT Global (many using our bonus code CPL), there are perhaps even more out there who are disappointed that they’re unfortunately not able to do so and play due to where in the world they happen to live. Please tell us a bit about WPT Global’s licensing, and which countries/jurisdictions you hope to soon add to your worldwide player pool?

AS: We launched with a Curaçao licence, as it was our best route to market, giving us everything we needed to launch quickly. In future, it’s likely that we’ll acquire more licences so that we can bring our unique offering to as many players as possible. Regardless of the licence we have, we will always operate to a far higher standard than the regulator requires.

With a great team in place, unique selling points, a strong marketing push, a brand familiar to everyone in the poker world, and lots of promotions in the offing for both new and existing players, WPT Global is poised for strong growth right out of the gates, to grab a nice initial share of the online poker market. What would you say the company’s targets are for Year 1, and to what degree you hope to be established in the online poker world by mid-April next year?

AS: We are probably the only poker startup ever not to have a liquidity target, specifically because we already have a massive pool of players thanks to our Asian partnership. So we are not building liquidity at any cost, as you might expect. I care about different things.

I care about awareness — do players know that WPT Global exists? By the end of this year – everyone in the poker community should know our name. If they don’t, we have really messed up!

I care about making our business sustainable. Do players have a good experience, are the games genuinely beatable? Are the games as safe and secure as we’ve promised?

I care about our people. Are we hiring and keeping the best staff? Are our employees learning all the time, seizing their potential, getting better every day? Are they motivated and happy in their jobs?

I care about the player experience. Are we offering amazing customer service? Can players qualify for their dream events with us? After they try us out, do players stick with us, or do they go back to playing elsewhere?

Our business targets all follow from these higher level aspirations. Of course we want to make money, but we know we won’t do that if we don’t get these basic things right.

Lupe’s term as President has now come to an end, and we caught up with her to hear some of her top highlights from the last few years, her thoughts about the current state of women in poker, and her plans for the future.

The embedded interview is followed by a transcript. Many thanks to the new WPA President Tara Windsor-Smith for her assistance.

Interview Transcript

Hey everybody this is Robbie Strazynski for Cardplayer Lifestyle and I’m here with Lupe Soto, the founder of the Women’s Poker Association and of course a Women in Poker Hall of Famer. How are you today, Lupe?

I’m great. I’m so excited to be here!

Well, a little birdie told me that your term as WPA President has come to an end. So, I figured now would be a good time to catch up with you, talk some about the WPA and your plans moving forward. Sounds good to you?

That sounds great.

Obviously, everyone knows the name Lupe Soto. You’ve done a ton in the poker industry over your career, you founded LIPS, you founded the Senior’s Poker Tour, and all manner of work in the online poker space, and of course you’re probably best known as a fierce advocate to grow the game, specifically for women. What was your vision when you first set out to found the Women’s Poker Association?

It was interesting. When you’re in the trenches of women’s poker and you’re kind of pounding on the doors and trying to get operators to understand the importance of having programming for women so that we can grow the game and all kinds of other reasons. But it was very difficult to do when you’re a proprietary kind of entity. Which I was. Which is LIPS. LIPS is definitely a for-profit business. It’s a poker tour for women. So when you go and share a message under that umbrella, everyone thinks you want something from them. So it’s like yeah, of course I would like your poker room to be a LIPS stop at some point, but that was difficult to separate from the message.

So there was an attempt in about 2009 or something like that. I can’t remember exactly when it was. I got together with a couple of my girlfriends who also had a passion for women in poker and we decided to try the Women’s Poker Association. The challenge with it is that it started to look like a tour. And that was not the objective. And I also believe that the minute you become a tour or another entity that is competing with an operator, there’s a tendency not to have a very open dialogue.

Right.

So we had to go back to the drawing board. Just completely wipe that idea out. And having the association become a non-profit was really the way to go. Simply because, now nobody’s after any dollars, the only dollars that are raised are for the good of the association, and for the betterment and improvement of it overall.

Right.

So that was game-changing.

Right. So I believe the president’s term at the WPA officially is three years. Can you share with us some highlights from your time at the helm of the WPA? Maybe you’ve got some particular achievements that you’re most proud of?

So in the first two years of my five years with the WPA, was in the Executive Director position, in that role. So I didn’t have a vote on the Board. I had a voice, but I didn’t have a vote. So when Bonnie Carl, who was the president at the time, stepped down, I knew that the transition was critical. So I said, ok, I will accept a position as president. But I’m really wanting this to be bigger than me. So I wanted to do one term, which was three years.

I’d say some of the highlights, in our overall mission, one of our missions was to educate women in poker. And having created a partnership with Poker Power, which is another organization that’s mission is to teach women how to play poker, and to instruct women as to how poker as a game translates into real-life business practices and things we can utilize in our regular daily lives. That was a huge thing for me.

Secondly, I think the Raise It Up program, to introduce that into the industry and to ask the industry to embrace it. We are asking all operators and all players to elevate their experience at the game by respecting their players when they’re playing, and to make it more fun so that we can grow the game. So the Raise It Up program is another thing that I’m extremely proud of.

And I would say the third thing, and these are just the top three things that come to mind. For years and years, the men in the game would say “I like LIPS and I like that women are playing in the game, and how can I help and what can I do?” And that’s when the Purple Tie Guy program came through. Purple being the color of the WPA, and ties being the thing that is iconic for a man, the Purple Tie Guy was born.

Absolutely. You have some real feathers in your cap. And of course, I am a very proud Purple Tie Guy myself. I am happy to always support and be an ally of the WPA.

The Board of Directors in particular, but of course all WPA members, are so thankful for everything you’ve done. The time has come to pass the torch once again, so to speak. Of course, even with passing the torch, there’s so much more work to do. With the poker community perhaps more aware than ever before, very much in part due to the work you’ve done, of the need to bring more women to the game, what sorts of milestones for women in poker would you like to see next?

I would like to see every operator on the planet have a program – wait a minute – let’s have a discussion! What are you doing to bring women into the game? What are you doing in your own house, in your own poker room, or your own business, or whatever it is, to bring women into the game. I would like to see that next thing happen, where there’s a conversation about what they’re going to do, and put a little bit of money into it. Even though they’re not looking at what’s happening, they’re only seeing a number. If you look and you see how many women…Maybe there’s the numbers in the highest levels.. If you ask me. If you’re playing in the World Series of Poker Tournaments, those are the highest levels of our game. Correct?

Right

If you’re playing in Main Events of poker tours, that’s an elevation of the game. If you start looking at the smaller buy-in kind of stuff, or even in cash games in poker rooms, there are women everywhere playing.

Right. Sure.

And you’ve seen that before. I think if you look at mixed games, there are a lot more women playing in mixed games than you’ve ever seen before.

That’s great.

So I do think that we are making progress, and I think that the conversation needs to be active every year. “What can we do?” “How can we do things?” That would be my parting thing. What can happen next?

That would be a wonderful thing. Speaking of parting words, do you have any special well wishes to Tara Smith? She was the Vice President of the Women’s Poker Association, now she’ll be stepping into your shoes. Anything that you’d like to wish her?

It’s not just Tara. I love Tara. I’ve known Tara for many years. She worked with me in LIPS back in the day. She got recruited away from me. Because she’s a rock star. And we don’t pay anything and she got paid really well. And she’s now working with an amazing company in her professional life. And she still has the passion for women in poker, and she’s such a rock star. Excellent hands. The Association, and the leadership that’s now in place. Our Board of Directors are simply amazing women. And there’s not just the Board of Directors, there are all the advocates out in the field that are representing women in poker and representing our association, they’re doing amazing work.

So I’m really excited about the next generation of women. I believe that it’s going to be wave after wave after wave of success from this point on. I’m just so proud of them, and the work that they’ve done, and the commitment. Because this is an all-volunteer organization. Nobody gets paid here. And as you know, volunteer jobs are schlep jobs sometimes. And even if it’s just stapling papers together sometimes, or licking stamps, or whatever the heck we need. These women are stepping up to the plate. From the smallest of tasks to the greatest of tasks. So I’m just extremely proud of them and I know they’re going to do a great job. And that the current Board that’s in place are rock stars.

Wonderful. While you’re not going to continue leading the WPA from the president’s seat, I have a hunch that you’re still going to be continuing to advocate for women in poker and growing the game in other ways. What are your upcoming plans with LIPS and your other ventures?

LIPS is always going to be my baby. It’s my passion. Right now, this is like the last chapter for me. I feel like 20 years ago, it was to bring women into the game. Then to add more things, I felt like I really started to understand the industry: who’s out there, who’s doing what, and what’s not being done. And now I feel like I want to use this next chapter as a culmination of everything. I’ve been given an opportunity that I’m so excited about. So I have a plan for the next chapter for me, and the next chapter for me is to introduce a new tour. And that new tour is open to everyone. It will have a Ladies event and it will have a Seniors event. So both SPT and LIPs will still be involved. But I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to grow a legacy and a namesake for Mike Sexton.

Wow.

So, I am going to be launching the Mike Sexton All-American Poker Circuit.

Wow.

So we’re currently in talks and we’re seeking out 10 launch properties across the States who want to be a part of this. There are very few people in this industry who deserve this kind of recognition, and Mike is definitely one of those people. So now we have Mike’s name being edified, and we’ll have the All-American Poker Tour as, I mean, red white and blue, honey. It is the Eagle’s Nest if you’re a champion. We’re talking draped in that stuff, and Mike is a Veteran. So it was really important to us to have an event in there that honors first responders and veterans. And we will have that in there. And that is also a fundraiser for Poker Gives. So it’s really a culmination of Mike’s legacy and what he’s given to this game, and the good that he’s done and to be able to continue that on. So that’s the next chapter!

Beautiful. So exciting to look forward to that and so exciting for you to have that wonderful thing to look forward to. I’m sure it’s going to be super-successful with you leading the charge there.

Lupe, before we let you go, do you have any parting words for the WPA membership, or perhaps for the greater poker audience of both men and women who will likely see or read this interview?

I think the most important thing is that our mission in the WPA is to really actively eliminate the barriers to growing our game. So if you are an operator, have a conversation about what you’re doing for women in poker. If you’re a poker player, have a conversation with yourself about how you behave at the poker table. And what is ok, and what isn’t ok. And be an advocate for a better game. And be an advocate to be a better player, not just in your skillset, but also in your persona.

Sure.

You know, just be friendly, be welcoming. Make sure that if you see somebody that’s new at the game, just introduce yourself. Just say Hi. And just remember to not be critical. I just think being welcoming, being friendly, and respecting the rules, and supporting the staff that’s there to serve you. To me that’s highly important. Treat the dealers correctly. And if you have a problem, don’t sit there and berate a dealer. Stand up and go talk to the floor. Take it away from the atmosphere of the game. Let’s elevate the game in all ways.

Such an important message. Not a better note to end off this talk. Lupe, I just want to thank you again for joining me here today. And I also want to chime in with my best wishes to you in all your future endeavors. Specifically with the Mike Sexton All-American Poker Tour. It sounds super-cool. And a huge thank you for everything you’ve done and everything you continue to do to grow the game of poker that we all love so dearly.

This has been Robbie Strazynski, for Cardplayer Lifestyle; thank you all for joining us.

But at the 2022 WSOP that may change, as T.J. Jurkiewicz took the trouble to analyze the healthiest dining options on the Las Vegas Strip and compiled them into a free book called “WSOP Healthier Eating Guide“.

We spoke to T.J. about his life, the many poker tournaments he’s played, his work and his new book.

First live tournaments

Timothy has Polish ancestry, but was born and raised in New Jersey. From 2013 to 2018 he was living in Maryland and in 2018 he moved to Las Vegas, the city that never sleeps.

He started playing live tournaments in 2014 and his first final table was at the Parx Casino’s Big Stax VIII, where he placed eighth winning $7.6K. In 2016 he claimed his first title when he won a $300 Maryland Casino Live! event for $6.2K. His Hendon Mob profile shows lifetime career earnings of $110K.

In December of last year he played some cash games at The Lodge poker room in Round Rock, Texas and shared a table with 4x WSOP bracelet winner Mike Matusow. You can catch some of that action in the video below.

 

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A post shared by T.J. Jurkiewicz | Nutrition Coach (@tj_jurk)

Playing for a bracelet during the 2019 WSOP

T.J.’s best tournament result so far came during the 2019 WSOP, where he played the final table of Event #57 Tag Team. He and his friend Zach came very close to winning their first bracelets, finishing fourth. Their elimination came on a classic coin-flip: Their A-Ks lost to an opponent’s 5-5 and each team member netted $26K for fourth place.

Speaking to us about that deep run, T.J. reflected, “Placing fourth in the Tag Team event in 2019 was a surreal experience. I chose my partner, Zach Gruneberg, because we had become good friends in years past and in 2019 we were actually filming a vlog series called ‘Behind the Grind.’ We were a perfect pair to play in that event, as my background in poker was playing cash games 98% of the time and he was playing tournaments probably 100% of the time. I played the entire first day of the tournament and bagged a pretty good stack for us. I played the beginning of Day 2 and lost a few tough pots early and then Zach took over when we dipped below 50 BBs and I don’t think I played more than six hands the rest of the tournament, which was totally fine with me as playing that stack size was his bread and butter. I did get to play and win a pot at the final table when he had to run to the bathroom so I’ll always have that on my poker resume!”

T.J. and Zach during the final table. Photo: Jamie Thompson / PokerNews

When asked what his 2022 WSOP plans were, T.J. replied, “Honestly, I am so busy building the business and servicing my clients that I won’t have much time to spend playing tournaments for entire days this summer. I definitely will play the Tag Team event with Zach again and I would like to play the $1,500 Monster Stack, as that has been my favorite event since I’ve been coming to the WSOP. I might sprinkle a few of the other smaller large field lottery tickets events if I find the time but we will see!”

New philosophy of life and nutritional coaching project

T.J. also recently posted a “10 year challenge” photo of himself on his social channels, where his body showed a great transformation. We asked him about it and here’s what he had to say: “I have struggled with my weight since I was in high school, where I peaked at right around 300 pounds. I became obsessed with learning everything I could about nutrition at that point. Along that timeline, I would try all these various fad diets I would read about and they all resulted in me gaining a lot of the weight back.”

T.J. Jurkiewicz 10 year challenge

He added: “There is a lot of very poor nutrition advice doled out to this day that is widely accepted. I realized I needed to have a healthier, sustainable relationship with food, and when COVID lockdowns happened I decided to get properly educated and dedicate myself to learning from trusted sources about nutrition. So, I studied and eventually received my nutrition coaching certification from Precision Nutrition. I had thoughts of becoming a nutrition coach and helping others in the areas that I struggled with for 15 years, which is what I currently do.”

Thus was born T.J.’s idea of founding All In Fitness Coaching: “After I got certified, I slowly started taking on 1-on-1 clients and realized how passionate I was about this as a career. I opened an LLC, got all of the paperwork done to make it official, and have been adding clients to the point where I have a lot of them now. I played poker professionally full-time starting in 2013 and did that all the way up until COVID happened. Now, I’ve shifted my focus to nutrition coaching and helping others. I believe that my experience both struggling with my weight for 16+ years as well as having that experience of being a full-time poker player allows me the unique opportunity to help others in this field. I wish that I knew what I know now 10 years ago because it would have saved me a lot of frustration, but I can find solace in the fact I can now help others avoid those same frustrations I experienced.”

Here’s what one happy customer, Matt Affleck, had to say:

I’ve been working w TJ all year for my weight loss journey. His approach, while taking basic health principals, promotes dieting that is easy and sustainable. Simple changes we can make daily for ever, rather than crash dieting on chicken / rice. Highly rec to anyone struggling https://t.co/0XYvIfw1il

— Matthew Affleck (@mcmattopoker) May 10, 2022

On working with poker players he told us: “I work with several poker players, one of whom you might know, Matt Affleck. Matt hired me at the beginning of this year after entering into a weight loss challenge bet with other poker players. He’s been an A+ client, always trusting the process and he actually hit his goal weight for the 5-month period just four months into our time working together. He’s down 27 pounds so far and, more importantly, I know that he is building the confidence that he knows he will keep the weight off. I’m confident that given the success we have had working together, he is going to have a phenomenal summer at the WSOP. I’m calling it now: he will win his first bracelet!”

The first healthy guide to the WSOP

We asked T.J. how he came up with the idea of creating his WSOP healthy eating guide: “With being the first year of the WSOP being located on the Strip, I thought people would want to know what dining options were nearby within walking distance, where they could access healthier food options. I essentially just wanted people to be able to make overall better decisions with their food choices during the series to enable them to feel and play their best.”

We also asked T.J. about the advantages for players who maintain a healthy diet during the WSOP: “I believe that feeling your best physically will allow you to make the most optimal decisions at the poker table. When you make a deep run in some of these tournaments, and the field is getting tougher and tougher with each elimination, I truly feel like you need to have every possible edge you can have. When Darren Elias 3-bets your open, you don’t want to be holding your stomach regretting the double bacon cheeseburger and fries (with a milkshake) you crammed down 90 minutes earlier. You want to be focused on making the best possible decisions and I believe you can help put yourself in that spot by fueling yourself properly through your food choices.”

WSOP Healthier Eating Guide drops tomorrow morning.

Quick video explaining how it works and why it was made:https://t.co/yC85WAnlE7

— TJ Jurkiewicz (@tj_jurk) May 22, 2022

Eating healthy in Las Vegas

So, if T.J. had to choose three places to eat healthy food in Las Vegas what would they be?

“In terms of walking distance from Bally’s and Paris: Yard House at Linq Promenade, PF Chang’s at Planet Hollywood and Ocean One in Miracle Mile Mall. You can look up the best food options from these places in the guide that I wrote.”

T.J. continued, “In terms of Las Vegas as a whole: For meal prep I like The Good Life Chef the best. I’ve been using them for quite a while myself and what makes them stand out is they don’t make bland bodybuilding style meals. They specialize in healthier Asian style dishes so I highly recommend trying the beef bulgogi, chicken adobo, and grilled sweet spicy sticky chicken. Everything there is good but these three are top tier. If you use my code TIM15 you will get 15% off of your order and they will deliver anywhere in town. Just get orders in by Thursday at midnight and they will deliver the meals to you on Sunday. They also list all calorie and macronutrient counts so you know exactly what you’re getting in each meal.”

“The other two options for me would be: Greens and Proteins and Protein House. Both of these restaurants specialize in healthier, nutrient dense foods and what I like most about them is they list out all of their calorie and macronutrient counts so you know exactly what you’re putting into your body,” T.J. added.

The famous “Poker Kitchen” at the Rio Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas. Photo: PokerNews

Tips for WSOP players

Finally, we asked T.J. for three pieces of healthy eating advice he’d give people attending the WSOP. Here’s what he had to say:

1. Prioritize protein at every meal. Protein is the most satiating macronutrient and it will give you your best bang for your buck in terms of keeping you fuller for longer periods of time, which will come in huge during long tournament days. Make protein the primary food source for your entrees and you’ll be on the right path.
2. Get fibrous carbohydrates and avoid simple carbs. Fibrous carbs include apples (eat the skin, that’s where the most fiber is), strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. Stay away from simple carbs like candy, sugar filled drinks, syrups, table sugar, fruit juice concentrate, and anything loaded with added sugars like cookies or breakfast cereals.
3. Eat healthy fats. You want to go with a good quality extra virgin olive oil (you get what you pay for with olive oil), avocados, almonds, dark chocolate (85% or above). All of these healthy fats have been linked to increased cognitive function; just be careful not to over indulge on them, as they are calorically dense. For meats, stick to grass-fed beef and wild caught salmon whenever possible, if you’re able to cook at an AirBnb.

T.J. had one last important clarification to add: “The WSOP is not a time that you should be trying to diet and lose weight. The time to do that is from August through May. WSOP should be a time that you are giving your body an adequate level of calories and balanced macronutrients so that you are feeling your best and most energized. I understand that people come out here and want to have a good time with friends they haven’t seen in a while, but you need to treat it as a business trip as well. Don’t go out drinking until 3am the night before you know you are going to be playing an earlier tournament. Save those nights for when you know you have a day off the following day. Find a good middle ground between being healthy while still enjoying yourself.”

We invite you to download T.J.’s guide before you travel to Las Vegas so that you’re fully prepared to get the best healthy food options on the Strip and be at your healthiest while bracelet hunting.

The “WSOP Healthier Eating Guide” is officially live!

Download your free copy below:https://t.co/D4ZunqvHos pic.twitter.com/3ojUYflKBH

— TJ Jurkiewicz (@tj_jurk) May 23, 2022

Kyna England is one of Poker Power’s instructors and easily one of the most successful players in the organization’s ranks. Having won over $700,000 in 2021 along with the Mid-States Poker Tour Player of the Year title, Kyna has more than justified her instructor role and has sent out a strong message into the poker world.

In this interview we find out more about what Kyna’s personal and professional journeys have been like up to this point, how she came to be a part of Poker Power in the first place, and what future holds for her.

You’ve obviously had a great year in poker, claiming the Mid-States Poker Tour Player of the Year title and winning over $700,000 in 2021. But, unlike many others who found their way into poker early on, you only started to take the game seriously relatively recently. What has that journey been like for you?

I learned how to play when I was in college, but had stepped away from it briefly. When I was in Las Vegas for a work conference, I started playing again and remembered how much I loved the game. I played a few years just recreationally, but during the pandemic I was out of work and wanted to step my game up so I started studying and practicing online; small stakes while evolving my game.

Poker is so dynamic, now I feel like I am learning everyday. But I couldn’t have done it without a core group of friends. We would zoom and chat about hands and run strategy by other people; I think that’s what helped me the most.

I’m a champion!!! Yaaaaaay!!! #myrailisbetterthanyours @sarahkstefan https://t.co/FQHSDJWDie

— Kyna England (@Kyna_CooL) December 13, 2021

How did your engagement with Poker Power come about? Not being a very experienced player yourself at the time, what was it that gave you the confidence and the motivation to accept the role as an instructor with the site?

I was approached for the role by Sarah Stefan, one of my best friends now. She told me about the opportunity since I wasn’t working at the time, and explained that it was a work from home job that required me to study while staying sharp. Sounded like the perfect gig! When we started there were only 4-5 teachers, and now we have like 20!

You’re the first female player to win the MSPT Player of the Year title, and that must be a great feeling on several levels. Obviously, it’s a great personal achievement for any player, but given your role with Poker Power, it’s even greater. Do you feel like this gives you the kind of added credibility that will help bring even more people to the platform? And, on a personal level, what does it mean for you as someone who’s only been playing professionally for a few years?

I am very proud of myself and my achievement. It does feel rather validating on a personal level. We have recently seen an uptick of intermediate players who want to sharpen their game. I have several women who have come through the program more than once because they want to keep learning. I am happy people appreciate poker and are taking advantage of what we offer. Especially since it is currently free!

You’ve transitioned from a traditional job to a full-time poker player, and in one of your interviews, you said that you couldn’t really go back. Clearly, you’ve had a lot of success on the felt, but we all know that a life of a poker professional isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Have you had any moments of doubt over the past few years? Were there any instances when you considered throwing in the towel and going back to a safer, more stable profession?

In the right setting, I might be able to go back to a full-time job. I like to be around people, while learning and trying new things. Right now, playing poker is fun and I’m exploring a new city, giving myself some time to figure things out.

With any profession there will always be doubt, but I work pretty hard on my mental game so the lows don’t feel as low. I have come a long way from where I was. There were many times, as I am sure many friends can attest, that I just blew up, or cried, or just hated myself for even showing up. I really used to beat myself up at losses and bad plays, being mentally strong really makes a difference in the way you play. I highly recommend anyone who wants to get better and progress in their game take the time to do the same.

Back in July, you had your biggest cash, taking home almost $450,000 for a third-place finish in the WPT Venetian Deep Stack Event. Looking at the field, you had to mix it up with some big names on your way there – the likes of Chad Everslage, Jason Koon, Scotty Nguyen, Jose Ignacio Barbero, and Michael Mizrachi. What was that experience like for you, and are there any particularly interesting moments that stuck with you (other than winning a bunch of money, obviously)?

Yeah that was an amazing tournament, very cool to play with so many great players. I am naturally chatty, so I took advantage of the experience and just had fun with it.

Scotty was fun to play with. He had some great stories and he made me laugh. But I remember it was the end of day one, and I had waited all day for a massage and finally got one in the last level of the night. So I was just ready to zone out and be done…and then they sat Phil Hellmuth at my table and I just cheesed so hard. He totally acted like everyone expects him to act and it was fun. But he busted pretty quick so I didn’t get to play with him long.

At one point I was sitting with Tony Dunst. It was the end of day two, I think, and we were at a table near the rail, and ALL THESE PEOPLE WERE WATCHING!!! I had my back to the rail and I remember thinking “What if they can all see my cards?!?” I know it’s silly, but it felt like we were putting on a show.

I have so many stories, I could go on… so I will! One more funny thing… the first day my friends came over to take a picture of me and say ‘hi,’ and my friend Sarah was leaving home to Chicago later that day and she said “if you make the final table you have to fly me back!” I laughed and was like ‘yeah right… okay.’ And then we flew her back a few days later!

Kyna, you can play a $5k tomorrow, and you are going to make the final table…but you’re going to feel very stupid and self conscious and insecure at times. Can you handle that??? —- I think we can handle that!!! #myrailisbetterthanyours https://t.co/nwEnmYtnsK

— Kyna England (@Kyna_CooL) July 8, 2021

I saw on your Twitter that you moved to Las Vegas recently. Was this decision purely poker-driven (i.e., being where all the action is), or were there other factors at play? How’s Vegas been treating you thus far? Is it all you expected it to be?

I have been wanting to move out of Chicago for a while now and this was just a good time. I have family here and have met a lot of great people. It was mostly to be closer to poker, but I’m excited to explore the West Coast a little more and take my time to find my footing. Moving is scary and stressful, but also exciting and adventurous!

What do you do when you move to Vegas?? Because I love it and I can!!!! @SPPokr pic.twitter.com/GbxlotcrV9

— Kyna England (@Kyna_CooL) December 21, 2021

In what ways did Poker Power help you on a personal level, and what does the future hold? Are there any interesting events our readers should know about?

During the pandemic I was unemployed and it was a little scary. Poker Power gave me the opportunity to make some money from home while sharpening my skills at the same time. I am very grateful for that. We do community events every month that are always different. I would definitely recommend the Poker Power community, check out our events page on the Poker Power website.

To end off, what is your message to all the women out there who like poker but are perhaps reluctant to take that big first step and jump into the action?

A message for the women? I guess I would say, don’t be afraid to try something new that interests you. Whether it be poker or anything else. I always say, if you want to get better, you will!

No king, queen, and jack, but gold, silver, and bronze. Indy Mellink of Oegstgeest, Holland has developed a gender-neutral deck of cards.

The king is higher than the queen, and the queen in turn is higher than the jack. In every card game, the king is higher than the queen.

Indy Mellink thought this was strange. When she wanted to explain a new card game to her cousins, 23-year-old Mellink paused to consider those age-old values and got annoyed. Her father remarked that if it irritated her so much, then she should start doing something about it.

With the coronavirus raging in the Netherlands and everyone forced to stay home under lockdown rules, Indy had plenty of time on her hands. Already well-versed in graphic design, she began devoting her time to change the design of the card game.

Royal couples, princes and princesses, and farmers and farmers’ wives

Initially, Mellink wanted to replace the king with a royal couple of king and queen. Then instead of the queen, she wanted a prince and princess, and instead of the jack, she wanted a farmer and farmer’s wife together on the card. That way, both genders would be represented equally, but you still had different values.

She moved on from that idea, as new problems soon presented themselves. “I found it difficult to represent two people properly on one card. And what would we call that card?”

“It’s always a white king, queen, and jack. Whether that’s intended or not; they’re certainly not people of color.”

Not only did the naming and equal representation on the cards cause a problem, another issue made Mellink change her course as well: “I thought about it and most of the picture cards you see, are white people. It’s always a white king, queen, and jack. Whether that’s intended or not; they’re certainly not people of color. I didn’t think that was representative either. That’s another a form of inequality.”

Mellink stepped away from the idea of depicting individuals on the three playing cards altogether. She looked for a solution; something that represented a triad of easily recognizable values. Even people, or perhaps especially people, who had never played cards before and had never seen the gender-neutral card game, needed to understand immediately which order of precedence applied.

“I was looking for something new; something easy that everyone already knows. Finally I had a Eureka-moment: gold, silver, and bronze! Everyone already knows those three from sports like the Olympics medals.”

Fierce reactions to the gender-neutral card game

In October 2020, she launched her site gsb-playingcards.com where, for €9.95, anyone can buy a gender-neutral deck of cards without kings, queens, and jacks, but instead with gold, silver, and bronze.

The initiative received modest attention at first but the reactions really started pouring in after an interview in of Holland’s biggest newspapers and daily new shows this week.

It not only led to increased sales, but the project also unleashed a big debate, with hundreds of people discussing the need (or lack thereof) for a change to the classic deck of cards. The reactions are very polarized; from very positive to extremely negative.

“The fact that people have such strong feelings about it, shows that I am addressing something important.”

The first reaction is always the same, says Mellink: “The first thing people say is, ‘Oh, I’ve never thought about this.'” The reaction that follows then varies: “Or they go in the direction of ‘I do believe in this, I do agree with you. Just give me six decks right away.’ But other people say ‘It’s such a small thing anyway, why is it important at all? Why are you changing something that needs no changing?'”

People who fall into the second category often accuse Mellink of making much ado about nothing by changing things. At the same time, some vehement reactions indicate that there is an issue and it’s not a small one. “Ironic yes,” laughs Mellink when she describes how people get infuriated while accusing her of getting riled up about something that is not a problem.

All those reactions, including negative ones, don’t make Mellink question whether she was right to get into this. “It certainly does motivate me. It just shows that I’ve come up with an idea that’s getting a lot of attention. The fact that people have such strong feelings about it shows that I’m addressing something important.”

At times it’s difficult to deal with the negative reactions, but fortunately, there have also been some very positive ones. “With the heavily negative reactions, I really feel pity for people. Some people have so much hate in their lives that they get so worked up about me trying to change something, which I find almost pathetic. I don’t let it get to me; if people feel the need to express themselves like that, they can do so .”

Making a career out of the the gender-neutral cards

Mellink completed her Master’s degree in Forensic Psychology last year, now she teaches at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. But in addition to her work as Course Coordinator for Legal Psychology and pursuing a Ph.D., she is now fully dedicated to the gender-neutral deck of card with the gold, silver, and bronze cards.

Her phone is constantly ringing with interview requests and her Inbox is flooded with people looking for collaborations. “I’m pursuing my Ph.D. but if I can get this [card game] to spread all over the world, that would be awesome. If I can start devoting myself to this full time, I think that would be really cool!”

“With cards, that medieval – that old class system – isn’t really reflected in the games we play like poker and blackjack.”

Whether her local Holland Casino will give the game a try and whether Unibet Poker (which already introduced Queen’s Rules events) will play with the GSB deck one day remains to be seen. But Mellink is open to any initiative that will bring her gender-neutral card game more widely to the attention of the public.

With The Queen’s Gambit still fresh in our minds, the question is whether there are any other games on Mellink’s list to tackle. “There is no such list, and if there were, chess would not be immediately on it,” laughs Mellink.

“Chess is meant to replicate the medieval way of waging war.” Mellink says. “With cards, that medieval – that old class system – isn’t really reflected in the games we play like poker and blackjack. So that’s why with cards it’s important that we change the ranking but with chess, it’s not. And by the way; the queen is not necessarily that much less valuable than the king in chess. She’s actually much more powerful.”

The gender-neutral card game is available for purchase through gsb-playingcards.com. Mellink is also active on Facebook and Instagram with her online store. Lead photo via Indy Mellink. This interview was originally published in Dutch on CasinoNieuws.nl.

Previously a relative unknown in the poker world, the native Bulgarian sat for a video interview on the YouTube channel of BetKings.eu, the GGPoker Network skin on which he competed in the online bracelet event. We’re sharing the interview with you below along with a transcript.

Additionally, a BetKings representative was kind enough to pass along some of my own questions as well, which Stoyan graciously also answered. These appear just below the transcript. I hope you enjoy the interview and getting to know poker’s newest champion a bit better.

Want to win big at the next WSOP Online Summer Series? Check out our top 7 tips!

Summarized Interview Transcript

Congratulations on this historic win! You are the first-ever WSOP online world champion. Do you even realize that you have just made history? How does it feel?

Thank you very much! Yes it´s a fact: I am the first one who won it online, I am humbled. It would feel just as great if it was live too! Winning this bracelet feels incredible! It´s even more than a dream.

How did you celebrate this historic win?

First I started screaming, then jumping around, and that was for like 15 minutes! I had a few drinks with friends. I still haven´t had the time for a proper party because there are many people who want to speak to me, do interviews, etc. Probably once I get the bracelet I will celebrate properly.

How did your WSOP journey start? Can you tell us a bit about your experiences on GGNetwork, the host of 2020 WSOP Online Summer Series?

I had a lot of fun playing at GG with all the stickers, and fun using the software. Also there was the feeling that you were participating in the WSOP, and it felt very special.

 

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Two weeks ago I was a guy good at poker, playing at a decent stakes enjoying and exploring life. I took a decision to take part in the WSOP ME- a little expensive for the roll but surely a one you would choose for a little gamble. Little did I know this would change my life completely. Now I am laying in bed being a 29 year old millionaire poker world champion with huge attention on him, trying to make a good public post to present my self a bit and fall asleep being drained of the sleeplessness and the emotions in the last couple of days. What happened is just amazing. Its surreal it’s something which I didn’t even dare to dream for. It even makes me question reality. I have never been more happy and grateful in my life.. What I didnt realise is all the hype and energy that would form around me. People are telling me how they are inspired of my win and stuff. I didnt realise I can effect this way another human being just by winning a poker tournamnet. I play and work on poker for more than 12 years and now being in this position I will try representing the game in a good and honest way. Thanks everyone for the greetings. Good Game to all the other players in the tournaments. Sorry for the badbeats. . . . . . . . . . . Thanks to @georgekazakovv for the cool pics. Waiting to post some with the bracelet soon. . . . . . . . . #poker #wsop #ggpoker #betkings #champion #myself #pokerrun #dream

A post shared by Stoyan Madanzhiev (@stoyanpoker) on Sep 7, 2020 at 6:00pm PDT

You qualified through Betkings. Anything that stands out as really positive on the site?

Betkings was amazing with me. Very good assistance any time I had questions. And they have great promotions. They really make me feel special.

When did you start playing poker?

I started playing when I was in school, so more than 12 years ago. When I found out how much strategy is involved in the game I fell in love with it, and I´m still studying it and trying to get better at it every day.

It was a lot different back in the day, as there was not as much information to help you out and, poker analysis programs were not so advanced back then. So everyone had their own point of view in terms of what was correct and what wasn’t.

But nowadays you can do so much if you want to be good, and that makes it easier to get better.

Who is the biggest supporter of your poker career? 

Of course there were some friends and fellow students who helped me believe I deserve to win big, but to be honest I was my own biggest supporter and mostly believed in myself.

When did you decide to go pro, and at what age?

I started playing freerolls at first and built bankrolls from nothing on different sites. My plan was to earn enough money monthly to make a living with poker by the time I got into a university. But then when I actually started going to university, I was already earning more money playing poker than most jobs pay, so I decided to play poker full-time. This was at the age of about 19-20, so maybe since then.

Do you play every day? How many hours a week do you estimate?

I would say, I am a bit lazy with my play. In the past years I’ve been doing a lot of coaching and working with students I stake. So my time is split: one part is play, another part is working on improving my play, and the last part is coaching.

I can’t say an exact amount of time I spend playing. It depends on the weather and the city I am in but it´s between 40-100 hours a month usually.

We know you as a talented poker player. But what do you like besides poker? How do you like to spend your days?

I like doing some outdoor activities like hiking, skiing, snowboarding, roller skating, riding motorcycles, playing sports. And then also meditation, yoga, meeting people. I’m still trying to explore life and try different things.

Tell us a bit more about the tournament. Who was the hardest opponent for you approaching the final table?

Well at the final table, being the chip leader, I did not meet much opposition, so I can’t really say someone gave me a hard time. At the start of the tournament Bryan Piccioli, directly on my left, had a bigger stack and that felt a bit uncomfortable.

Deal-making was disabled for WSOP events. Was there a moment that you thought: “Oh, I wish I could make a deal?”

No. I found out just today that it was not possible to make a deal. It crossed my mind before the final day if I would want to, but I never gave it to much thought. And once the action started I was so into the game that I decided to focus on playing and not to think about deals.

After the final hand, what went through your mind?

Uaaah! Ohhh! Omggg! WTF! Aaaaah! Something like that.

Many aspiring poker players will now look up to you and follow your footsteps. What kind of advice would you give them?

To never think they understand the game enough, and to always try to get better. And try to work on every aspect of it, both mental and technical.

Regarding the WSOP, are you going to strive for more champion titles in the future?

Not sure how easy it will be to win another bracelet considering the competition and field. But I will definitely try to win some more titles.

Now that you are WSOP world champion, what comes next for Stoyan?

I don’t know yet… For the short term I thought about making some videos analyzing my hands on the way to the win, which I recorded on my screen. It´s not something which I planned thoroughly, but you can follow my Instagram @stoyanpoker and maybe you can find out what’s next for me there.

Thank you so much for taking the time for this interview. We wish you the best of luck in the future!

Cardplayer Lifestyle’s Exclusive Q&A with Stoyan Madanzhiev

The term “life changing score” is often used when someone wins a big poker event, and this is no exception. In what way do you foresee your day-to-day life changing?

It is surely life changing for me. A score and title like this give you many opportunities but I still don’t have a plan. Surely I feel more calm and fulfilled.

You’ve been a professional poker player for a while. How does this big win change things for you as far as poker? Will you be grinding just as hard from now on, but at higher stakes?

I will probably continue working on my game, but start playing some higher stakes. But I don’t want to rush things too much, I will choose my games very carefully.

 Will you perhaps consider retiring with your almost $4 million in the bank?

There are some thoughts like that. But for now I will continue to play poker. I might make some investments, but with time I will have more clarity on how my life/path will continue.

Traditionally, the winner of the WSOP Main Event each year in Las Vegas de facto becomes sort of a poker ambassador for the year. Do you now consider yourself to have any sort of ambassadorial responsibilities to the game of poker, or at least perhaps promote the game more in your home country of Bulgaria?

Yes it feels like that. Many people tell me how my win motivated them and how they feel inspired. So I will try to present the game of poker in a good way but also not hide the downsides of it. I might be posting more on my instagram profile @stoyanpoker.

The PokerStars Game Integrity Department has the following mission statement:

To provide the best online gaming experience by protecting players’ interests and the integrity of our games, through objective and fair investigations.

I’ve just had the opportunity to speak with Baard Dahl, who heads up the company’s Game Integrity Department. He leads the teams that are comprised of a few dozen specialists, all of whom are either ex-professional poker players, qualified data scientists, or statistical analysts. Their responsibilities include investigating and resolving potential occurrences of collusion, multi-accounting, or prohibited software use.

Only on rare occasion does the poker-loving public get to learn in detail about the team’s activities, so I’m appreciative for having had the opportunity to do so and to share our conversation with you. In it, you’ll firstly learn little bit more about Baard and his professional background and qualifications for such an important role. Baard also breaks down the complex nature of the process behind his team’s various investigations as well as his department’s role in launching cards-up coverage of online poker events, plus he shares his thoughts on the evolution of artificial intelligence,

While I must openly admit being a little disappointed that Baard was unable to provide answers for a couple of the more specific questions I posed, due to the impossibility of sharing proprietary and/or sensitive information, I also fully understand that just like in poker, you cannot fully tip your hand, lest your opponent be able to take advantage.

Even so, I believe you’ll find our conversation to be quite interesting and enlightening. My sincere thanks to Baard for his time and for agreeing to grant me this interview.

Prior to getting into poker and the gaming industry, you had a previous career working in logistics and freight management in Oslo, Norway. What lessons and experiences from that work have you found helpful and perhaps been able to incorporate into your work over the years at PokerStars?

I don’t know if there is much from my past experience that is directly applicable to what I am doing now, but in logistics you have to be able to react quickly when unexpected things happen and that is certainly also the case in the online poker industry.

Having said that, it was during my time in logistics that I got my first experience with data analytics and the benefits that can have for business, which is something I have been heavily involved in during all of my 9+ years with PokerStars.

In between careers, from 2003-2007, you used to be a professional poker player. In fact, you’re #1 on the Isle of Man all-time money list for career live poker tournament earnings (over $150,000) and also boast about $250,000 in career online poker tournament earnings. Those are some nice results that anyone would be proud of. What made you decide to walk away from that life to pursue a proper job once again, and is there anything you miss about those years?

First of all, there are a number of PokerStars colleagues in the Isle of Man who could have pushed me off that perch if they had bothered to change their flag in Hendon Mob!

The main reason that I ended my professional poker playing career was simply that I wasn’t winning much anymore. As players started to study the game more in-depth, I was left behind more and more. I’d say the main reason was I didn’t have a group of poker playing friends who I discussed the finer points of the game with on a regular basis. So I was kind of living inside my own bubble, which isn’t great when it is necessary to see that the train is leaving the platform.

Many of your readers probably consider 2007 to be pre-golden age of poker. I might have some regrets that I gave it up at the time I did, but it did open up other opportunities that I feel very fortunate to have had. I still play some poker and would say that my game is a lot better now than it ever was during my professional career.

It takes a particular skill set to be a member of your team. That skill set is in high demand and is of course useful in numerous other disciplines beyond online poker. What is it that drew you and other members of your team to use your talents specifically within the poker industry?

The main skill that is required to work in Game Integrity is that you have a very good understanding of poker. This probably explains why everyone on our team has chosen to work in this field. When you are passionate about the game in the way that we are, it is very appealing to be able to take a job that allows you not just to be involved in poker, but to look after the best interests of its players and take the game forward.

And you are absolutely right that our team is comprised of people with a wide range of other skills that they could have easily used in other industries. We have statistical analysts, programmers, system analysts and many others, and we need all those qualifications within our team. As you will understand, we offer the opportunity for everyone to use a variety of skills and also to learn new ones. That is almost certainly also a reason why people choose to work with us.

What does a typical day’s work consist of for you and the members of your team?

I honestly think there are no typical days for any of us, and this is one of the things that make working here so interesting. Apart from the pure administrative aspects of my job, my role is very much forward-looking, trying to make sure we are prepared for any possible challenges that might come up in the future.

For our agents, investigations are either initiated by player reports, system reports or other ad-hoc analysis that agents might be involved in. Our department is split into a (anti-)Bot team and a (anti-)Collusion team, and their respective investigations look quite different from each other. We always prioritize the player reports first, and once they are cleared, we look into the alerts that our system generates. To give you an idea of how that weighs up, last year 96% of the collusion cases we investigated and 86% of the bot cases we investigated were first proactively detected by our systems.

If an agent suspects that something untoward has happened in a game, there are several options for how the investigation can proceed. Typically, the suspected player will be contacted by email and asked to explain the thinking in certain hands they have played, and after that the player might even be asked to video record a playing session in order to provide us with more information.

If, after all of this and some in-depth investigation using some pretty powerful technology, the agent concludes that the player is guilty as charged, they will present their evidence to one of the other agents for confirmation. If that agent agrees with the first, we will take the appropriate action against the player, and if agreement is not reached, a third agent will chime in and cast the deciding vote.

Approximately how long does a typical case investigation take?

That varies widely. Sometimes we can clear a suspicion in 15 minutes, but there have also been instances where a single investigation has run over several months. Taking as an example a mid-stakes collusion case where we decide that the suspects have indeed been colluding, I’d estimate that the average investigation takes about seven hours when you add up all the time the different agents have spent.

Do you ever feel any sort of added nervousness or anxiety if the amount of money in question during an investigation is exceptionally high (e.g., six figures or greater)?

I really am not more nervous when dealing with such cases, but that is mainly because I am very confident in the work of every agent on the team. Our cases are really given every consideration possible and if they result in a confiscation of funds it is because we have no reasonable doubt that the player(s) in question has materially breached our terms of service.

It is also worth adding that only a very small minority of our cases find their way across my desk, and these are the ones that involve sums of $20K and higher. So, if I am called to sign off, the default is that the amounts are reasonably high.

To the best of my knowledge, our publication of your infographic in June was the first time your department publicly revealed statistical information related to your investigations. Now, a few months later, we’re having this open conversation. What does it feel like, on a personal and professional level, to be lifting the proverbial curtain to this extent after such a lengthy time “operating behind closed doors”?

It’s very satisfying. I’ve been in this role for just over two years, and one of the things I emphasized in the interview process back then, was that I thought the company was missing an opportunity by not showing off our abilities in this area. Today, it’s great to get out there and say plainly ‘we have a dedicated team with super-powerful detection capabilities and whose KPIs are simply to keep the game safe. Here we are and here’s what we’ve been up to.’

As I mentioned earlier, we all play ourselves. We know what a difference it can make just knowing that someone’s looking out for you. That way, you don’t want to have to think about anything else.

@PokerStarsLIVE Just to let everyone know that the player’s lounge is open for all players. The online poker staff is there to answer questions about Product, MTTs and Game Integrity. #EPTBarcelona #EPT pic.twitter.com/GI73Czplls

— Baard Dahl (@bvdahl) August 25, 2019

Obviously, there’s a lot we haven’t been able to and still can’t discuss when it comes to our capabilities, technologies, and processes, but we’ve put a lot into gathering the most important data and getting it out there in different ways. We have our infographics, our web pages and FAQs, and the accompanying videos that are embedded there.

We are in the process of localizing all this content, so I am hopeful that before the end of the year we’ll be able to reach the vast majority of our players in their native languages. We also have plans for more videos, so keep an eye out.

PokerStars recently launched cards-up coverage for its Stadium Series and now offers it once again for WCOOP 2020. You’ve provided a first-of-its-kind viewing experience for fans that has been quite well-received. What aspects of Game Integrity had to be tested/vetted during the development process and are continually monitored during live coverage so as to ensure fully secure gameplay for all participants featured during the broadcasts?

The main concern would obviously be if someone were able to intercept the stream while the hands are being played, but the way the system is designed makes this an impossibility. No information about any hands are sent by the server until each hand has ended, so I am very confident that no one can exploit this in any way.

First-ever cards-up coverage from a PokerStars online tournament! Follow the Stadium Series at https://t.co/apO0V5dYHA over the next 23 days with @J_Hartigan and @Stapes and guests.

Historical, first guest expert commentator @SquidPoker.

Looking good guys!

— Baard Dahl (@bvdahl) July 13, 2020

Another issue might be that some players feel that the focus is too much on them, and that their hole cards and play are shown too much in comparison with others. However, our professional commentators are very aware of this. They have a choice of several tables and it is easy to jump between them during an online stream, so we’ll only focus on players if something really interesting is going on.

21 days of live cards-up coverage of #WCOOP2020 starts on Monday on @PSTwitch & @YouTube.

Commentary team includes @Stapes, @SquidPoker, @GriffinBenger, @MariaHo, @Roothlus & @OP_Poker_Nick.

Plus, 18 Twitch-exclusive final table replays with @GJReggie & @pyefacepoker. pic.twitter.com/j4Gu3ueNRO

— James Hartigan (@J_Hartigan) August 28, 2020

Your random number generator (RNG) is independently audited. Is there some sort of external third-party organization that your team needs to legally report or “open the books” to in order to provide another layer of added security/integrity for players?

There are jurisdictions where we have to submit reports when we make confiscations and close player accounts.

Beyond that, our team isn’t audited, per se. It does play an important role in upholding PokerStars’ standards and meeting those of the regulators we work with, but the same applies to a lot of teams here.

Were there any notable protocols/procedures that you can recall changing for the Game Integrity team either in the wake of Black Friday or just after the company transitioned to be publicly traded?

I have only been in Game Integrity for a couple of years, so both of those events took place while I had another role in the company.

Spent the last three days in Ray Bitar’s actual office. If the walls could only talk… pic.twitter.com/DzbnHD47b9

— Baard Dahl (@bvdahl) September 12, 2018

Are you perhaps able to share some processes/procedures that represent some of the more fascinating developments you’ve incorporated into your work and processes?

We are constantly learning and improving our processes, but this mostly happens iteratively. There have been some tools that members of the team have made which have really made a world of difference, but I can’t go too deeply into those.

Finally, people around the world are continuously witness to advances in artificial intelligence. Indeed, it’s quite fascinating to observe new milestones regularly being achieved. It would seem that some of these developments present new, unique challenges to your team as regards the sophistication of bots, etc. How do you typically react when reading of a new technological breakthrough for AI software?

On a personal note, I am fascinated by the progress that is being made in the area of AI these days. Poker is definitely a game that lends itself well to this technology, so it is not surprising that scientists use it in case studies.

As for how this progress affects us, I hope I do not sound too arrogant when saying that it doesn’t affect us too much. AI isn’t really breaking news at PokerStars and there is no correlation between the playing strength of a bot and how difficult it is to catch them. I usually make the comparison with the police using a speed gun. It catches the Lamborghinis as effectively as the Renault Clio that I am driving.

Bots pose constant challenges to us, but it’s not mainly due to how good they are at playing and we’ve invested millions and millions of dollars developing systems to detect even the most sophisticated pieces of software. If anything, AI actually makes us stronger as we continuously evolve our tools.