The Year That Was: 2017

What a year this has been. In our hyper-focused gambling and poker world, things have been less explosive but still quite interesting as in the country at-large. I thought I’d take a look at some of the major events of 2017 in the gambling and poker world.

Libratus

Two years ago, a group from Carnegie Mellon University took on some of the best heads up no limit players in the world and came up short. In January of this year, over 120,000 hands, their new bot Libratus smoked the new group of four heads-up players to the tune of roughly 14 big blinds per 100 hands. After the famous “statistical tie” conclusion of their previous match, this was a clear drubbing by the bot.

Dong Kim was the human who fared best amongst the humans, only losing $2.85 per hand! The human who performed the worst was Jason Les, losing almost $30 per hand. Experts calculated somewhere between a 0.0001 percent and 0.54 percent chance with those win rates and the calculated standard deviation that the result was due to luck and not skill. In other words, it’s almost impossible that the humans just ran poorly over that sample, but it’s still a minute possibility.

Online Gambling News

Two major online poker and gambling stories came to fruition this year. First, New Jersey and Nevada came to an agreement to share liquidity in their online markets, expanding the relationship that Nevada already had with Delaware. This will allow the markets to offer their poker games to a wider audience. The addition of New Jersey into the coalition will be a big test for future shared liquidity pacts as more and more states pass online gambling legislation.

The newest state to add online gambling to its repertoire is Pennsylvania. Passing new legislation in early November, the state becomes the fourth to offer regulated online gambling in the US, joining the above mentioned states. There are six states that offer online lottery as well. The more the merrier I say when it comes to being able to play poker online in the US. I’m hoping that California can get over the hump and really boost the US online poker market.

WSOP Loses The November Nine

After a 10-year run, the November Nine came to an end this year. The experiment was an interesting one that was ultimately scratched. In my opinion, the novel idea, was mostly a success when the poker viewing audience was less mature. Now that the poker viewing market has settled into a group that’s mostly populated with enthusiasts, it was more interesting to see the final table immediately following the previous days’ play in July. The product was more fresh and felt like how people actually play poker instead of everyone playing near perfectly after having studied for 5 months.

John Hesp

Speaking of people playing interesting poker, John Hesp stole the show at this year’s WSOP main event. The literally colourful Brit, who wore a multicolored jacket throughout, had never played a tournament with a buyin higher than a £10 rebuy event (incidentally, he has returned to that event since finishing fourth in the main event, his Card Player profile page is a real joy to read). He was chip leader at the final table until a pretty big cooler against the person who was second in chips put a damper on his day. Running top two pair into top set will really cause some trouble. He managed to hang on to ladder up a few more spots, but everyone in the poker world was rooting hard for him.

Kirk and Tsoukernik

Perhaps the story garnering the most attention outside of the poker world this year has been the dispute between Leon Tsoukernik and Matt Kirk over a late night game of poker in May of this year. Kirk allegedly loaned Tsoukernik $3 million and won it all from him. The ensuing mess has been reported on by The Washington Post and other mainstream media outlets. Kirk sued Tsoukernik, Tsoukernik sued Kirk and the Aria, and others have weighed in to give their two cents. It’s a story that I’ve covered in this column and will be developing over the next few months and years. Meanwhile, the WSOP hosted its marquis European event at Tsoukernik’s casino and used Leon to market the Million Dollar Big One For One Drop, which returns to the Rio in 2018.

Ferguson Wins Player of the Year

Also returning to the Rio in 2018, this year as the Player of the Year, will be the much maligned former Full Tilt Poker founder Chris Ferguson. Refusing to admit that he has anything to answer to regarding the Full Tilt debacle, Ferguson drew and ignored the ire of the poker world as he marched his way to the top of the Player of the Year list. Many felt the formula used to determine the award was too dependent on small buy-in events and rewarded those who cash continually more than those who finish higher more occasionally. Either way, Ferguson is the WSOP Player of the Year for 2017 and we can all look forward to an incredibly awkward presentation during the first week of the 2018 summer series.

A tumultuous year in politics, poker, and gambling, 2017 left us with lots to talk about, and I didn’t even include one of the most famous people in poker losing a lawsuit over a £10 million win at a casino in London. Goodbye 2017, I wish we hardly knew ye. ♠

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG