The Glorified High Roller Lifestyle

By Jacob Sear

It’s been over seven years since the first ever 100K buy-in tournament was played at the Crown Casino with ten players taking to the felt. Since that time there have been countless “High Roller” tournaments all around the world, but how are these professional and novice poker players finding their way into these events?

Last year we had the first seven figure buy-in which professional poker player Antonio Esfandiari took home more than 18 million after defeating Sam Tricket. However, the question is how much did Antonio really take home? I’m not talking about what he made after taxes but after everything is said and done how much did the man put in the bank?

Did Antonio wake one day and decide he was going to risk one million dollars of his own money? Did he even have a million dollars to his name? Mostly likely he had several backers take a good chunk of the action. So really why are all these resort casinos hosting these extravagant buy-ins in which even the biggest names in our sport are unable to afford taking even half of themselves?

With many theories swirling around to why these tournaments exist perhaps the insight of the always charismatic and forever homeless Faraz Jaka can shed some light on the subject. Among what can only be considered 140 characters from the mind of Faraz Jaka, he recently posted a three part tweet on his views of “High Roller” tournaments. In the posting Faraz stated that “it is the media forcing (professional poker players) to look more baller” claiming that for the most part many of the individuals playing in these events are in serious financial distress and have no more than 20% of themselves in these tournaments.

The idea that large corporations are backing many of these players in order to create the illusion of grandeur and a rock and roll lifestyle seems plausible. Although the Moneymaker effect has dramatically increased the interest in poker globally tournament directors are constantly on the prowl to bring more players into their doors.

However, the issue that both Faraz Jaka and I can agree on is that there is certainly something askew going on behind the scenes that the millions of TV viewers do not get to see. It is no question that many of these professional gamblers receive stakes for nose bleed tournament but is it possible that the stakes are as much as 90% of the buy-in?

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By Jacob Sear
Thank you for reading.

Last edited by killa; Today at 09:46 AM.

CENSORSHIP

what do you guys think of the content and stuff i'm trying to get into poker media. I'm a recent college grad trying to figure out what is next.

it sucks. have you considered coaching?

what do you think I can do to make it suck less.

IMO you need either new content or novel analysis. this lacks both. i'd suggest growing a pair of tits or finding something else to do.

Have you tried talking to Kevmath? He's quite a big player in the poker media.

ignore TakeCareAA. literally. He's just trolling you. Interesting article that could belong on Pokernews or HSDB.

So far I have exchanged emails with Jessica Welman editor at WSOP.com and have tweeted several times at Kevin Mathers hoping to spark his curiosity considering I just graduated from Syracuse where he lived for a while and now currently live in Atlanta where he now lives and works for Bluff. My hope is that after going down to the Semonile HardRock Open later this month and just getting interviews and writing blogs about it that I will get more attention. I'm open to any constructive criticism and ideas from anyone.

i honestly didnt like it. although, yes, im a huge troll. in penance, i often give honest advice:

i think poker is on the downside (at least until it's legislated in US or there's another "boom". whether this correlates to being on the downside for the media, im not sure. however, either way, i don't think theres a ton of room for a guy like yourself to break in. kevmath et al do an excellent job, and a lot of the people in media (for obvious reasons) are hot girls.

which means that your best bet is to have new and innovative content. you can't just settle for good, it has to be NoahSD special.

if you want to pursue it for a couple of months and poker writing is a dream of yours, there's probably no harm in seeing whats up. you're young and you have time. but personally, i think it'd be better to go through career services at syracuse and try and find something where you would have a foot in the door.

journalism is tough. i sympathize.

/seriousness

Alright well I wrote another

The Rise of Open Faced Chinese Poker
By Jacob Sear
What could possibly draw some of the biggest names in poker away from playing the greatest and most prestigious tournament of them all? Although side games have been popular at the WSOP for years it is becoming clear that tournaments are beginning to take a backseat to the side games that are offered as a result of the tournaments themselves.
If you entered the Rio at any given point during the WSOP chances are you witnessed an OFC table going with games ranging from $5 to $100 a point. However, if you somehow managed to take a wrong turn on your way to the Rio and wound up at the Aria you may have borne witness to what can only be described as one of the sickest events in poker history.
Both Tom Dwan and Gus Hanson decided to skip their first days of the main event day to play in what Gus Hanson later described as a game “definitely on the high end of what I feel comfortable playing” with stakes reaching a blistering height of $3,000 a point.
What is most shocking is that only a few years ago if were to ask any number of professional poker players what open faced chinese poker was you would probably hear crickets. However, recently open faced chinese poker is sweeping the high stakes poker world and blowing up on twitter. Even tournament poker legend Phil Hellmuth gets into the mix and posts his losses with a whimsical upbeat attitude on twitter every now and then.
This year the World Series of Poker hosted its first ever open faced chinese poker tournament at the Rio with 48 players taking to the felt. Ultimately it would be PokerStars pro Victor Ramdin taking down first place and the $76,707. Although Ramdin did not receive a bracelet for this event the tournament speaks volumes for the future of OFC.
Unfortunately outside of Las Vegas most casinos do not offer OFC in their poker rooms, but that hasn’t stopped the professionals and amateurs alike from getting their fill. More and more OFC apps are popping up each day with some having as many as 5,000 unique downloads on the android platform. The question now is how long will it take before we see OFC in more casinos across the country?
Jacob Sear
@JacobSear on Twitter

Your articles suck because they read like USA Today articles geared towards people with almost no knowledge of the game.

How about some quotes from actual players? Or fresh insight?

People with no knowledge of the game would have absolutely no idea what was going on with the OFC article, so you're pretty wrong IMO

+1 for quotes from players though, even if it's just taken from say the Pokerstars.tv video Barry and Shaun Deeb made about ofc

I think I can weigh in pretty well here, I myself like writing, not to the level or commitment that you do Jason but I admire those who try and become writers and I enjoy reading articles from those who them well. Furthermore, I am a high stakes poker professional. I have played in some of the largest live PLO games in the world this year.

You're issue with the first article is fairly simple, the content isn't particularly new and interesting for those who are in the poker world. Therefore if the goal was to get it out there on say, a pokernews, or a pokerkingblog, then it's probably going to fall short. The piece is well written but it's nothing new. Poker tournaments with ludicrous buy ins of over $100k and up have poker professional taking part who are either backed or who have sold off a huge chunk. Wow? Really? I mean it's just common sense and even the greater public who are aware even slightly of the nuances of the poker world are going to know that only the super rich (the multi millionaires and the billionaires) are going to be able to afford said buy ins on their own money.

I haven't read the OFC chinese article yet and I probably won't provide feedback so not to clutter your thread.

Your writing style, in my opinion, for the most part is good and easy to read. My advice, however, would be to seek out and report on the stories that aren't as well publicised. For instance, (yes it's well known now) but an article on Jeans playing the $1million on 100% of his own money would be more interesting, relaying the hardcore efforts that he's put into countless hours of mastering PLO in order to assemble such a roll to take this sort of gamble. What other financial revenues he has, his propensity to gamble etc.

Or seek out information on home game poker. Parts of the world where young successful players are making huge sums playing in dangerous and unregulated home games. Where the characters in the game are often drug dealers etc and the rake is high, where the stakes are high and they leave the games with sums of money people would kill for etc.

Anyway, I look forward to reading your future content and I hope this input is seen as helpful rather than just scathing criticism.

What a great response

Fantasy Sports Gambling Websites Article
By Jacob Sear
@JacobSear on twitter
Today I would like to address the idea of playing daily fantasy sports for money. I have taken into consideration the recent comments from individuals that have posted on my 2+2 thread and have attempted to write to people that are well versed in gaming actives.
Now everyone reading this I’m sure has at one point joined a fantasy league (considering who my audience is has undoubtedly made wagers with their buddies). However, it was not until recent years that individuals were able to play daily fantasy sports legally online in the United States.
I was not even aware of it until I started following the twitter account of none other than Jonathan Aguiar and learned of his participation with Draftkings. Upon further review I have actually begun playing on the site and as a side note have cashed in all the games I have entered.
What I find fascinating about this relatively new concept that is rising in popularity is that it is completely legal in the United States. As a result of it being a game of skill companies are allowed to offer real money sit n goes, as well as, larger tournaments without fear of DOJ interference.
Now this means that players do not have to worry about a company’s ethics and the possibility of them not getting paid. As a result of being U.S. companies there is no possibility of these companies just taking your money and never cashing you out like so many other websites that we are all aware of.
See the issue that so many U.S. poker players failed to grasp was that when you break U.S. law you are no longer protected by it. What planet must a person be on to think that the DOJ would care that you lost money that they couldn’t tax?? So when UB, Full Tilt, and everyone else packed up and left why was anyone surprised that they had issues withdrawing their money? I mean yes it unfortunate but does it really surprise anyone?
Jonathan Aguiar recently spoke to pokernews regarding his dealings with Draftkings in an interview and what struck me the most is that he said that “there are probably under 100 people who can make a living off doing just fantasy sports.”
How can that be? I have just set up my account and have played a number of tournaments some of which were heads up and others that are a ten man double up in which the top 5 double their money. All it really takes is to be an avid baseball fan, which I am, and to know what websites to look to find information about hitters against particular pitchers, fields, how they are hitting or pitching lately, which isn’t too hard to find.
To me the only issue can be that right now the only people currently on these sites are hardcore intelligent people and not exactly the donkeys that are easy money. My thought is that there has not been that Moneymaker Effect yet to create that boom bringing in all the dead money. However, Aguiar tends to disagree with me as he also stated “ we are seeing the beginning of the right now (the boom).” Now although I have seen some online advertisements for these site I still do not see the amount of traffic on them that would suggest a “boom”, but I am just beginning to really look into it. There is no denying that these websites are growing, but what will happen when poker is finally legalized again in the U.S. by massive casino corporations. They too will I’m sure will offer similar type fantasy baseball opportunities on their sites.
In the end I do believe that at least for a somewhat intelligent individual with a passion for baseball this could be a way to make some supplemental income while at the same time having fun.

The Rise of Online Fantasy Sports

By Jacob Sear

@JacobSear on Twitter

Ever since black Friday, the day in which the Department of Justice removed all internet poker in the United States gambling enthusiasts have been itching for a way to get back into the mix. In the past few years websites such as DraftDay.com, which allows U.S. citizens over the age of 18 to wager money against other opponents in skilled daily drafts has slowly been on the rise. Draftday.com along with its various competitors allows anyone with a PayPal account to wager their fantasy knowledge against anyone willing to take them on. Websites such as DraftDay.com are completely legal in every sense the fact remains many potential recreational players are hesitant to put money on to these websites ever since the DOJ shutdown every poker site. But I tell you these sites are here for the long haul and many if not all are headquartered in the United States and thus are subject to U.S. law.

I decided that I wanted to take a closer look at these websites and began doing my own investigation. With the help of Scott Malewig and Scott Redick, whom are long time fantasy sports enthusiasts, as well as, employees of DraftDay.com I have learned a great deal about fantasy sports and have even begun participating. My goal now is to both win my ten men double up tourneys while at the same time educate the general public about daily fantasy sports and in particularly DraftDay.com.

Not surprisingly DraftDay.com was the brainchild of two poker minded individuals. Both Taylor Caby and Andrew Wiggins, the founders of CardRunners, decided in late 2011 that the world was ready for another chance at online gaming. However, these men were smart and decided that it was far safer to go about their business with the approval of the Department of Justice.

Now of course I would like to add that although I do not believe poker to be a game of luck the fact remains that many in Congress disagree. However, fortunately for the millions of fantasy owners around the world websites such as DraftDay.com have breathed new life into their broken hearts.

DraftDay.com offers real money betting games like PGA, Rapid Fire, Bracket Games and Target Games that most other sites are unable to offer. In fact upon looking more closely at the top leading daily fantasy websites no site offers all of these games on a single site other than DraftDay.com.

During my Q & A with the pleasant Scott Redick and Scott Malewig I brought up the question “why do I never seen any advertisements about draftday online?” In fact I stumbled on the website by means of a tweet. Scott contends that although draftday.com advertises on many platforms, “generally (we) try to stay away from ones that our competitors are actively on for the most part”, implying that it is more productive for them to gain attention via other social mediums that their competition fails to act on.

The most pressing questions that I posed and which I believe all the readers are most concerned about is what is the health and direction of daily fantasy gaming? Although most of the individuals on these websites are there to have fun there are some that want to win money. I myself have contemplated whether individuals have the ability to actually make a comfortable living solely by playing on these sites. Former professional poker player Jonathan Aguiar contends “that there are maybe only hundred or so unique individuals that could make a living solely based on fantasy sports.” My assumption is that the in order for this to occur there needs to be a massive increase in the number of players on each site. In order to achieve a greater audience sites such draftday.com will have to employ promotions, giveaways, and excitement to achieve this goal. The key is that there needs to be enough players regularly visiting the site that are just looking to have fun and aren’t quite as concerned about winning money.

Now although I have had several reports from other sites including draftday.com’s competitors the fact remains that fantasy gaming is on the rise and perhaps it is even about to undergo pokers Moneymaker Effect of 2003.
I would like to thank both Scott Redic and Scott Malewig for the their help and wish them both the best in their feature endeavors.

By Jacob Sear

@JacobSear on Twitter.

It has been a while since my last post. I will be heading to Harrahs Cherokee Casino in North Carolina to see what their electronic tables are all about. I will write another article and yall can tell me what you think.