The Poker Authority

The World Series of Poker Europe main event will live long in the memory for many reasons. Two November Nine players ­— Antoine Saout and James Akenhead — also made the final nine in London, as did the father, Barry Shulman, of another November Niner, Jeff Shulman.

The epic heads-up battle between Daniel Negreanu and Card Player owner Shulman played out over five hours, ending at almost 6 a.m., and provided many dramatic twists and turns, but Negreanu, the overwhelming crowd favourite, could not grind down his redoubtable 63-year-old foe. Shulman was crowned WSOPE main event champion, deservedly earning his second career bracelet.

Negreanu was gracious in defeat and your European Bureau Chief congratulates both him and Shulman on a riveting duel.

With one championship down and one to go, the Shulmans are on top of their game and playing “boss” poker, thus proving that when it comes to walking the walk as opposed to talking the talk, Card Player is The Poker Authority.

Media in the Spotlight
The role of the media in poker should be relatively straightforward — gather the news and report it, identify the interesting people, talk to them and write about what they say, promote the game, and help people understand it better.

With all the money poured into player sponsorship, live tournaments, television, and advertising by online poker companies, it never ceases to amaze that when it comes to interfacing with the media many companies get the basics so wrong.

In the last couple of weeks I have a received a “results” press release with no results, another without a picture of the winner of the event, and a brusque email from a major poker company asking me to correct an inaccuracy to a story. They were invited to re-read the story to see if they could actually spot the accuracy of it. After a second reading, they did and thanked me for clarifying the matter, but offered no apology having effectively accused me of not knowing what I was talking about.

Another company, which should know better, sends out press releases a week after their stories first break and have already been covered by all but the most feckless of media outlets, and several others which seem to think that the media should be able to read their minds as they clearly don’t think anything they do is newsworthy.

What online poker companies need to realise is that increasingly they are media companies, publishing blogs, generating news and strategy, utilising viral and web publishing strategies, optimising their websites for search engines, producing television shows and even magazines in some cases.

Having worked in public relations and occasionally still consulting in that area I understand more than most the time resource issues these companies and their employees face, but as a philosopher put it in the 18th century, “We think in generalities, but we live in detail.”

How hard can it be to tell your story to someone who wants to hear it?