how the **** has this not turned into a photoshop thread yet?

FTP should try and sign Dan Bilzerian. Unlikely he would but I can't think of anyone else in the world that would bring in as many recreational players as he would.

I dont think we will see blom playing from now... the freeroll is over

Okay...........??????

Name somebody else who would bring in more players than him.

How do I know???

I mean I get your point,,,but its just wrong I assume majority of those guys hes playing with are not pro poker players and they just play for fun. In a scenario you present, those guys come to FTP to play and whats gonna happen?? - They will be immidiately picked on by bumhunters all day long - but the worst of it is that those bumhunters WILL NOT give any action back,,just leave with their money never to be seen again,,,so to speak. You can see there is close to non HS action nowdays...why is that? Bcs everybody is ***** bumhunting, instead of playing anybody and everybody whos around, which would result in creating action and that would result it making those games more interesting even for recreational players.

But as it is now, when everybody just wants to beat the fish,,I mean, where is the fun in that? How do you want to atract recreational player, who should put millions into the game? I sincerely doubt they would enjoy it, nobody with the right sence would - and people making millions are not idiots.

Also theres a matter of anonymity which is very important for most of them, and so on and on and on, there are many reasons why this is a dumb idea.

I don't mean rich fish that he plays with, I mean the amount of 18-35yr old working males who think he's living the ultimate lifestyle; a lifestyle he claims is entirely funded by poker.

He wouldn't even need to play very often, just make sure Full Tilt patches/marketing etc is present on his instagram account amongst the women, money and guns. He certainly wouldn't shy away from the media like Blom did either, the guy loves attention. A lot of my non poker friends all think he is the ultimate poker player. Who cares if it's not true? He'd help FT bring in the 'lads' who all think they can be the next Dan Bilzerian.

I doubt you even play them.

And guarantees don't cost them money if met.

Ohh,,yeah,,actually havent thought of that aspect ..that could work actually very well tbh,,heh..

Let's be honest, these 2 were poor ambassadors for FullTilt. They need guys on the live tournament circuit scene imo. Pokerstars has people at every major stop, FullTilt needs people like that.

They were poor. When FT relaunched w/ gus, isi and durr i think ftp pros being pure ****ing degens was great but they never built upon it. Dwan was the only guy who gave interviews (although he was never around). Isildur really hurt them the most, he goes to like 2-3 epts a year. They should've built upon that, his stubborness has cost him £x per month he desperatly needs.

FT is a sinking ship, be surprised if it'll still be intact come next WSOP

i actually thought about this - and any other sport the best teams play the worst teams.

And sure, they usually win. But sometimes the bad team gets a victory. And if a team isnt good enough they get relegated.

This is how the 'business model' of poker players should also work. It should be a pyramid and the money flows upwards to the best players. Along the way, people cash out nice sums to keep them going.

Like you said players find their level. Then eventually theey should take a shot looking to improve. More often than not theyll probably get beat and go back down again.

But this is where poker fails. Cos like you said.. people dont take those shots. And they refuse to play anyone who may be better. So the poker economy grinds to a hault. Im with you tho.. if people did play like this money would flow through poker. and people could still cash out decent amounts.

The bum hunting / whale hunting would be like a sports team waiting for some oil rich sports team to come along and play them, and be utterly terrible. But thats gonna happen like once in 10 years.

so yeh really bum hunting ruins all of it.

In regards to full tilt - i believe they actually wanted gus as a losing player. because for every winning player there has to be a losing player. And Gus represents that to the public (and Blom was SUPPOSED to be the epic winning player). Tho im very interested now the Blom gravy train has stopped. To see what happens.

And finally.. i only got into poker as my frind introduced me. Like so i dont know how to get more ppl to play. Plus ive always liked things like working mens clubs, gambling, drink - it was just perfect!

Maybe stars and Full tilt should do an introduce a friend scheme and get x amount of money.. thats how i started!

Hardly surprising really. Although Gus is a popular guy and carries himself very well, how can a poker site use two ambassadors with combined losses of $23mil on their own site?

1.He probably thought you were going to make a funny song about the fact his hair is running away from his head.

2.You lack the journalist gravitas of freelance poet Dan Smyth.

ptr or graphs from these player please?

Gus Hansen, Isildur1.

and while we´re at it, source of your avatar please?

Barring a radical change in their strategy I think this could be true for Poker. I think it would still remain as a Sportsbook/Casino though.

Isildur being a sponsored pro didn't ever make all that much sense to me. He's a superstar among 2p2ers, but I assume pre-black friday, everyone on 2p2 was already depositing and playing poker. Isn't Blom a complete nobody among casual poker fans? Seems like he would have a fraction of the marketing value compared to players who are regularly on TV.

I fee like the signing wouldn't have ever happened had it been discussed in the current online poker climate, and it only happened pre-BF because PS and FTP were in a seemingly misguided sponsorship arms race.

Edit: I think the obvious reasoning behind the signing is that it was designed to bring players from FTP to PS and not to market Isildur to casuals watching ESPN

That to me would be the best way to market poker

introduce a friend scheme. get 5 friends to upload $10 and you get $25 in your account or something.

Then over the course of thousands of people playing there are no doubt gonna be people that then continue playing after that initial upload

While this makes sense and a referral system is great, it kind of rubs a bit too close to MLM and Ponzi schemes. I doubt that's the way they'd go.

Congrats man, sounds like you just single handedly invented affiliate marketing.


Oh wait ...

I heard they let go of Gus and Isildur to make room for their next team pro......


Doyle Brunson!!!!!!!

yes but when people see an advert on a website they may not pay attention to it.

If your specific friend was saying "hey, try pokerstars its great fun poker i find" - that would have a lot more effect on people, in my opinion. Of all the players now how many of them can you name as starting because of a friend? A lot of them

Would be the wrong move in my opinion, Viktor is the reason so many people are interested in online poker. Mostly why i started aswell (although i havent seen him play much in the past 2-3 years). But im sure alot of people still log on FTP Daily just to watch him and probably play a few tables while at it aswell. Would love to see him on Pokerstars again and make more HS action.

But im sure we will find out the truth soon enough.