Before I begin, I want to clarify that I am a solo player and have never been part of any stables. I have no personal interest, and the destruction of stables would only benefit me. However, the reason I created this topic is because I sincerely believe that the main goal of the current CEO of PokerOK is not to fight stables and advocate for ecology, the reason is to earn as much money as possible by consciously destroying poker. The aim is to eventually turn it into a casino where no player wins in the distance. In this topic, I will prove this. There will be links to Russian sources in the text, and if you doubt my words, you can translate the original message using a translator.
Beginning
It all started a few days ago when PokerOK (the Russian branch of GGPoker) unlawfully
blocked over 100 players on its platform under the pretext of a war against poker stables.
But not only stable players were banned, but also solo regular players, and
this is far from the only case. The CEO Ivan himself
confirmed that 20% of solo regulars were affected
If we consider his
estimates, with the number of stable members being 3500, then this means that continuing such bans will affect 700 people not associated with the stables.
After numerous discussions, the CEO of PokerOK, Ivan Bryksin aka DonkVsFish,
appeared in the thread and in a very harsh manner stated that he had started a war with the stables and does not recommend going to other branches of GGPoker because he will "secretly (interesting from whom?) do everything." Why secretly, if this is a fight for a good cause and not something personal?
For those who think this is a management initiative, here are his
words: "
First of all, let us emphasize that our position is known and coordinated with the GGPoker network. Management fully supports our line in general and all today's dialogue." Based on this message, it becomes clear that this is Ivan's personal initiative, not GGPoker management. However, it is quite possible that he has conveyed his position to the management, and soon the fight against stables will also begin on other platforms.
Next, I will try to explain why having such a person in a leadership position will lead poker to its death.
Ego and Power
To understand why this person could kill poker, it's essential to clarify who he is. Let's start with the fact that Ivan "DonkVsFish" Bryksin is a former team pro of PokerDom, who was
banned and fired by the room itself due to soft play and chip dumping, but then apparently reformed and joined the "light side" (no).
1. First of all i want to highlight the CEO's communication style with his clients and how he perceives the world (through the lens of power/weakness rather than honesty and integrity).
I highly recommend reading all his messages, if you don't mind using a translator (to read only his messages, you can click on the arrows below the avatar).
At the same time, he doesn't put the room's management much higher than users.
Quote: "
I said at the meeting today that I will bring up this issue. And I will force them do as I did here." (this refers to why other stables are not touched, only the Ru segment). Can it be that GG's management prioritizes money over principles to such an extent that it tolerates a CEO speaking to them like that?
2.
Here, he blackmails and threatens regulars that if they stand up for the stables, he will cause problems for them.
I won't insist, but in my opinion, this is a deliberate and very dirty tactic aimed solely at winning the argument and "destroying" his enemies. At the same time, he tries to show that he supports regulars (but you'll understand later why this is not the case).
3. It's very important to emphasize that Ivan Bryksin has a personal conflict with the author of the original post, pokanuktus, who owns one of the funds, and in my opinion, this is personal revenge disguised as a fight against stables.
4. Next, he
writes that he will allow TylerRM to play on PokerOK without any obstacles as a token of gratitude for helping catch the superuser MoneyTaker69 and assisting the community in identifying many bots.
From this message, it becomes clear that the CEO personally chooses who can play and who cannot, which is another argument in favor of the fact that this was a personal vendetta. Because if the room follows a fair policy, such a message simply wouldn't exist. Although he was pointed out that TylerRM himself is the owner of a stable(or just a coach, I'm not sure here), to which Ivan
agreed, but said he wouldn't ban him because of his help against bot farms.
5. Censorship in Support. If you ask any uncomfortable question (even asked in a correct form), your question will be deleted, and you will be banned. You can
try it yourself . This again speaks to the honesty and openness of Ivan's policy. And the support can
tell you to go **** yourself.
Also, Ivan said he would answer any questions, but didn't answer most uncomfortable questions and continued to respond to the same questions in a circle.
Now that we've clarified what the CEO of the Russian branch of GGPoker represents, let's move on to the main point: how Ivan is killing poker. And why there is not a single drop of concern for amateurs or solo regs in his actions (as he sometimes mentions).
RTP 96%
1. More fee is better. Ivan introduced a deposit! fee with Skrill 3%. And increased the withdrawal fee to 3% instead of 1% through LuxonPay (
which is a breach of contract on the part of the room (point 4))
2. Ban on top-ups for regs from affiliates. Ivan personally
banned the Gipsyteam affiliate (I can't say about the others, but I'm sure they were too) from paying a 7-15% RB bonus to attracted regs.
"
I don't need regs, why don't you understand that. I'm needed by regs. Not vice versa. It's all obvious. What top-ups? Agents with reg traffic, goodbye, I told them. It's business. I'm protecting it. What conditions for regs are you talking about? We have PVI 0.2 there, all the high-stakes players you see in the lobby know this and continue to play."
3. Here we come to the most terrifying issue. Ivan strives to
turn poker into slots, where everyone will have an RTP of 96%.
And he explicitly states that if you play close to the perfect strategy (in the future), you will be banned, and your funds will be confiscated. Thus, the concepts of regs and earning through poker will simply disappear.
It's also important to understand that even very weak players often sincerely believe that they play better than others.
But Ivan wants to eliminate the very notion of "playing better than others." Nevertheless, poker is a game of skill (for now), and if you remove that, why play poker at all when you can spin slots or play roulette? Why merge two fundamentally different games into one.
But if I am wrong and PokerOK genuinely cares about regs, name three innovations that benefit regs? At least one.
Based on all the above, it becomes clear that all the CEO's actions are aimed at draining money, not caring about amateurs or individual regs.
No Regulars - No Poker
Now, I want to express my opinion on why regulars are important for poker, and I hope that this will somehow influence the policy of GGPoker and others.
1. Fewer regulars, fewer guarantees. How attractive do you think tournaments with an 80k guarantee will be for amateurs instead of 1 million? And if we're talking about small tournaments, it becomes even more ridiculous when in a top room there are guarantees for regular short deck or Omaha tournaments with a $10 buy-in and a $50 guarantee instead of $500+. Even regulars often won't want to register for these tournaments, let alone amateurs, for whom guarantees have greater value.
2. Taking PokerStars as an example, when they drastically cut RB, you can see what such radical "care" for amateurs leads to.
3. Word of mouth advertising. Just from me, over 10 of my friends started playing online poker (as amateurs). And they started because they knew that I make a living from poker, and that's what interested them in poker, not because I told them how rooms care about amateurs. I'm sure there are many such examples among users here.
4. Regulars also win big sums in tournaments more often and are written about in the media that are not even related to poker, which brings new players to poker. For example, Ivan Demidov, whose WSOP runner-up finish sparked a poker boom in the CIS region.
Conclusion
If PokerOK successfully implements its policy and poker becomes equivalent to a casino, it will be banned in many countries. The more negativity surrounds poker and the less it becomes about skill, the more countries will equate it to a casino and ban it. And PokerOK's policy (I want to be wrong about this) could lead to governments blocking even good rooms where there is no such shady business as on PokerOK.
My only request to the management is to dismiss Ivan Bryksin. Because simply restricting his rights won't stop him, and he will start looking for other ways to profit from players.
In conclusion, I want to address the users and especially the ambassadors of GGPoker. Do you really agree with the development direction that the CEO of PokerOK offers us? If poker were initially like what Ivan sees it, would you start playing it, or would you just pass by another casino game where there are no chances of winning?
Last edited by Mike Haven; 04-04-2024 at 08:13 AM.