http://www.pokernews.com/news/2015/1...cube-22955.htm

Whist I admire Alex Dreyfus' determination, I can't help but think that this is doomed to complete failure.

Bizarrely, players all have to stand up.
Lon McEachern commented 'Doyle's not invited?'
Dreyfus replied, 'I guess not'

They have, apparently, hired IMG to do the PR. It appears their remit doesn't extend to Twitter.

"Audiences will also be able to witness player's emotions first hand as games will now be played standing, providing a more dynamic approach to gameplay."

Why stop there? Make the players run around the table while they're in a hand and have various obstacles, such as spikes and chain saws come out of the floor. If you don't jump over them in time and lose your foot, your hand gets mucked.

Sportifying poker now seems to be gameshowifying poker.

It makes Shark Cage look like genius.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse. This is embarrassing as hell. He is creating a product no one wants.

Three points of interest, to me at least:

1. LoL finals draw greater than 30 million viewers online. If these GPL eventsc draw any audience, a tie-in to online poker site sponsorship can give this a pretty good shot, as it offers a closely related marketing opportunity.

2. Inclusion of Sao Paulo was smart, it is the "poker capital" of a 200 million person market, and tournament poker is legal there. Look for an event there during the 2016 Olympics ??

3. I would never bet against Alex, but I don't see the appeal. eSports' appeal I get, I think the viewers are largely players of the same gmaes, not just fans .......but how poker does poker translate to this format or generate fan interest, unless the viewers are already players in their own games ? That stuff about 51 million casual poker players sounds like a generality, not a market for the US.

4. Can this new sport "Cube Poker" compete with American Ninja, Hillbilly Handfishing, the lingerie football league, or 100 other "sports" entertainment contests ?

That's kind of my feeling too. I think he has a lot of good ideas and enthusiasm, but this one verges on the surreal. But I'm old and out of touch with the twitch/e-gaming generation. Poker as a live spectator sport doesn't really work for me.

This honestly seems like an over-produced unnecessary pile of ****.

I don't understand why someone would dedicate so much time and effort to this concept.

It's gonna fail

I already feel sorry for the investors of this money dump snooze fest.

c'mon don't be ridiculous.

make them run through the double dare obstacle course and risk getting slimed.

I can see the TV reviews now.

A game of eight squares. The six that make up the cube and the two inside it.

I predict this will be 'epic'

This is going to be a train wreck.

I almost read the article. I'm so glad I didn't.

"We wanted to think out of the box and to create products that focus on fans, not on players," Dreyfus said.

By putting them literally in a box! Genius.

The thing is these make good, fun for the family, cheap tv prog that fill the gaps on all these smaller satellite channels.

poker is boring esp with the serial tankers these days, even when you already are into poker it can be a chore sometimes to watch.

I still remember the first time I discovered that poker was on TV. It was before I'd ever played the game. I was flicking through the TV guide and saw 'poker' in the midnight slot and thought surely this isn't just guys playing poker.

When I saw that it was in fact guys playing poker I can remember thinking at the time that there isn't anything more ridiculous than this that they could put on TV. I actually thought it was some sort of joke that I didn't get. I thought it was hilarious. I can even remember laughing with friends saying 'can you believe they actually show this on TV?'

I don't know what I would have thought if this was the first poker show I was exposed to.

I did become addicted to the game though so maybe there are some positives that can come out of it.

pretty much this for me too ... so hard to tell. Alex went to several eGaming conventions and his company got a major stake from an asian company. anyway, i really like that he's not afraid to try new things

This is the same guy who made that formula for WSOP player of the year, right?

I think it's a good punt if they are freerolling the Chinese investors, so good luck I suppose.

It won't work though. The way to monetise poker is to get the fans or enthusiasts to play themselves - putting physical and psychological barriers between them and the game, giving them a status of fans rather than future players, makes that less likely to happen.

That's one reason why the EPT is going in the opposite direction with the previous spaceship style set



now replaced with a normal sized table directly on the floor

Needs hulk hogan commentating, and flava flav hosting

Standing in one spot for hours is the most tiresome thing I can imagine. Think: standing in line to use an ATM, or to enter a nightclub.

Playing a live tournament is a close 2nd.

And now they are combining the two.

1) now that GPL details are released, this is definitely a "go big or go home" strategy. no baby steps here.

2) One piece I don't understand is how GPL will get the players to play. Sounds like they will be drafted from the top players in the world. These players will then have to travel to various cities to compete in events with no buyin and no prize pool. How will they be comp'd? Would any of the top 50 poker players give up their day job to go do this? Why?

3) Since GPL appears to be self-funding for the time being, as I have said before, the poker industry as whole is on a free-roll, and will benefit from any positive exposure in the mainstream .

Apparently I'm one of the few that thinks this could be interesting. While I would probably never actually attend in person, I think watching the streams could be very entertaining.

An idea that could attract more people, and further the entertainment value would be to allow the spectators to live bet on the events to give more of a rooting interest. A really cool option, but probably too difficult because of live time constraints would be to allow live betting on individual actions. Build a stadium with seats that have their own computer interfaces(like horseraces or w/e) with live updating lines on players, individual hands, and actions. You can bet on someone to win before it starts when stacks are even. You could bet on the shortstack to win with updated odds in the middle of the event. You can bet on whether a player will call or fold when they are tanking with a bluffcatcher against a polarized all-in. This would be a much more interactive and stimulating event and could provide much more revenue for the league which could be used to create larger prizepools which would attract bigger star players/celebrities/etc.

I'm confused. the article says these will not be held in Casinos and has no mention of buyins or prizepools. I am assuming these are poker matches with no money changing hands.

If they are not held in Casinos then there can be no gambling.

The WSOP POY formula is the GPI formula. Annie Duke and others helped create that formula, which has been tweaked over the years.

There was talk in the article how the GPL could be a viable option for DFS sites

The GPY POY player counts only your best 11 results whereas the WSOP one was uncapped. If the WSOP one had been applied to the 2014 GPI POY then the winner would not have been Dan Colman.