True. He may be 2+2 famous, but he's not even poker famous. How he expects to attract new players is beyond me.

Not to mention it being bad to include 'lucky' in your name for a poker site when one of the main arguments for online poker is that it's a game of skill, not luck.

VariancyChewyPoker might be better.

I think it all seems pretty reasonable except for that lobby.

Photoshopped, obv. They can do astonishing things to homeless people with computers these days.

Not give them a shave and haircut yet though.

Ack. Beaten to the punchline!

I presume this is just a skin, yes? What software? Do they share tables w/ any other skins / networks?

I presume you're wrong.

Casual players are not going to deposit money on a site where the face of the business looks like a gypsy cult leader.

That said, I wish lucky chewy the best of luck.

Really? Custom poker client built from scratch specifically for Chewy? Would find that hard to believe, albeit impressive if true.

runitonce skin ??? that comes out before runitonce poker site ? since galfond tweeted he would like to work with him or something similar

welcome to NVG

since galfond said he was kinda forced to talk about RIO poker and is now completely silent, i doubt this is a skin and chewy would be allowed to release it. and imo the tweet reads more like mutual respect, than a business agreement ...

People deposited to Full Tilt when Chris "Jesus" Fergusun was the face of the company....

Such a huge fail.

You use someone as the face of the site if they are well known/will attract people. He's not well known even within Poker, and looks like a tramp (as has been mentioned).

Why would he choose to launch it this way instead of just being behind the scenes and calling it something generic? He could still be linked to the site just not as a tramp in a white hoody.

At least he is doing something, everybody has to start somewhere and the opitions we have today are all ****ty anyway. If the rake system is different from the abusive **** we see these days I already think it´s a great start.

LOOOL. So thats a flush xD

WTF, play money isn't poker.

According to the FAQ, you log in with your Stars Account !! lol



On the 'How to Play' page it also has random insertion of the phrase 'luckychewypoker2016'.

lol wish i had seen that when that was still up nice find.
There doesn't seem to be a single page that isn't full of mistakes.

Website seems rushed, hope the software isn't.

If the software isn't a skin of an existing network but rather has been built from the ground up uniquely for Chewy's site, I foresee disastrous results. Most people have no idea the lengths to which existing sites have needed to be de-bugged, patched, upgraded to even get to their current imperfect state(s). Some stuff I'm sure he and his devs will catch during the play-money-only phase. Most stuff you'll only learn through 10+ years of battle scars.

exactemente. Give the man a cowboy hat and a dark jacket and we're all in.

Need to give it time to see if the site works well, bugs are fixed and enough players are attracted, but certainly respect to Luckychewy for starting this venture and I wish him well with it.

Therefore the only thing I'll comment on directly is the branding and the web site name.

I would take the opposite view to most ITT and say that I think for what is likely to be a smaller poker site than most, at least initially, and probably more niche than most of its competitors, that having a non standard, quirky sounding name will differentiate it and make it easier for people to remember it and to build an association with what LuckyChewyPoker stands for.

If he had given it a generic poker sounding name like PokerGods, 777Poker, DiamondPoker or anything that is more "normal" or cliched sounding, then his brand name among dozens of similar sounding brand names would be less memorable. (if any of my off the cuff generic made up names really exist, apologies to those web sites)

Regarding the Jesus/Saintly/Hippy like branding of his image on the site. I also think this is a positive. Yes he is not a huge household name in poker, but he is fairly well known and if you haven't heard of him when you Google him you will get a distinct impression of an ethical, humanitarian type person. How close this impression is to the real Andrew Lichtenberger I have no idea, I don't know him. But I assume it is quite close, or very close.

So having him, his image and his outlook of life heavily associated with the brand and the site's name I think will encourage some players to play there based on their perception that this particular gaming company operates on a more ethical and fair to player basis than some others do.

So I think his image as it currently shows is fine and positive but it is much too big in size at the moment so would be better if it was present in the branding all over the site but in a smaller iconic size version of it, and also perhaps integrated into the brand's logo which maybe could be a poker chip with his image on it.

Religious iconography, which is essentially how it is visually coming across, will I believe engender a sense of trust between the player and the web site.

So much this!!!!! I only trust people wearing suits as they are much less likley to steal from you.

Crazy to start a poker site in 2016, let alone without tens of millions in ad budget.

And what's up with the UI, looks like Pokerstars in the early 2000s on Windows 98. Players these days expect minimum amount of clicks from opening app to action and not a ton of options. It should also be mobile first.

Of all the people that have stolen something from someone else in a given year, what percentage of total thieves (not total dollar amounts stolen, but number of thieves doing the stealing) do you believe were wearing a suit at the time of the theft?

O/U -- 3%

Which way you betting?

This is probably true re: the realistic funds needed for set up and marketing etc, which I think means that it is best to go for either a very basic affordable to build and run web site, or for a very expensive high end one.

The big risk in my opinion is falling between two stools.

On the face of it, this looks like a web site at the cheaper end, but I also notice that on the menu there is a Poker School with a referral to top coaches aspect (therefore an extra revenue stream), a Poker News section (presumably that can/will carry some advertising, so more extra revenue), and a Poker, Gaming and Trading Community section (presumably that can/will carry some advertising, so more extra revenue).

All 3 of these areas are far less or almost not at all advanced technology dependent for them to work and to be monetized.

By building a web site or business on the cheap you are not only lowering your own risk but you are more likely to be able to achieve a profitable exit strategy at some point because the base starting investment is relatively low, and you are much more likely to have much nearer to 100% equity in the business from the get go, so if you do need to raise investment in the future, you have plenty of equity available to sell to investors.

Assuming this is somewhat of an on a shoestring business set up, I think it is a sensible business strategy in a very competitive and possibly shrinking industry, where there are also present a number of volatile and unpredictable variables such as future changes in gaming and licensing laws and movement of money regulations.

Diversification within a business makes sense generally and this web site appears to be establishing elements of diversification in its original blueprint.

Tbh, I've never heard of the guy until now, and I'm not the type to get on 2+2 a few times a year, I'm on every day.

Old school.

Would a poker site that primarily caters to regulars and professional poker players actually be that profitable?

I know that is what most regs/pros want on here but in reality, aren't recreational players the biggest demo to be targeting and realistically, where all these regs/pros/providers make the majority of their income?

Judging by the screens I can't see recs depositing in close to volume that (im guessing) would be required to sustain/grow the business. So would profit from regs actually be enough?

Although power to the guys developing it and I hope it thrives.