Matt Vengrin is a seasoned professional poker player who focuses on tournaments in various game formats. According to thehendonmob.com he has $912,071 in live tournaments winnings and has had notable success in online tournaments as well. In this year’s WCOOP he binked the WCOOP-06: $700 PL Omaha 6-Max tourney this year for  $90,157 .

He has also appeared on the Aubrey Marcus Warrior Poet podcast with his brother Jared, where they talk poker and life with Aubrey. Definitely worth a listen.

Matt was kind enough to answer our Snapshot questions, enjoy:

About You

1. What is your name, age and where are you located? What is your personal twitter account?

Matt Vengrin, 31, Las Vegas/Costa Rica/Mexico @MattVengrin

2. What are Your online poker Screen names?

Plattsburgh, mattyv

3. How would you define yourself as a poker player? / What poker games do you normally play? Are you learning any new games?

I would say I am a tournament poker pro. I play every game, my favorite time of year is scoop/wcoop because they spread all the games.

4. What do you most enjoy about your job?

Not having a boss, being able to do whatever I wish.

5. Who are the top 3 players in your main game from your home country in your personal opinion?

Gray31, Bryn Kenney, Jason Mercier

6. What reg in your game do you respect most? Can you briefly describe why?

Gray31 because he constantly analyzes his play and is never happy or thinks he understands the game enough to stop learning.

7. Besides yourself who do you think the most underrated poker player is?

Gray31

Past

1. Why and when did you start playing poker? Do you still play for the same reasons?

Started to play in college dorms, and on the basketball game bus rides with teammates. When I started it was all about fun, and whenever it starts to be about money I know I need to take a break.

2. What were the best and worst months of your poker career? What happened?

Best was certainly when I won the 200r, chopped Sunday million, 2nd in ftp 750k, and 3rd in the 3k NL WSOP. Worst was when I was staking a friend for 75/150 Omaha 8 on stars and I decided to play PLO and chase my losses. Ended with a 26k loss, which was all I had in my account at the time.

3. Are you satisfied with the last 12 months of your poker play?

Absolutely. I had a very bad couple years and then I did some work and learned about myself and got back to having fun at the tables again. I pretended I was this intimidating guy when really I am just a big teddy bear who likes joking around. Very excited for the future.

4. How did Black Friday impact you? How did you adapt after Black Friday?

I thought it was a joke when I first logged in. I was in the process of closing on my Las Vegas home (lol) and then to be told I cannot play poker with other consenting adults made me question a lot of things. After that I spent about a year in Vegas I think and then I moved to Mexico for one year. Now I just go out of the country to play the big tournament series. I am considering moving full time- but id like to see how legalizing it in America works first.

5. What was the biggest factor in your development as a player?

For sure the mental game. In the beginning I would smash mouses, I threw a laptop out a window once. I’ve grown and matured now and only allow myself one computer throw a year. Seriously though being present and feeling the game around you makes all the difference.

6. What was the biggest mistake(s) you have done as a poker player? 

Bankroll management was the biggest. I would suggest to anyone playing for a living do not chase losses and do not play too high. Even if you are a good player you still could lose a few games in a row.

7. What’s your biggest prop bet?

We gave someone a free-roll once if he could eat 100 tacos in 3 hours we would give him $250. So we went to a fast food place and bought them. He only managed like 12.

Present

1. How do you prepare for your poker activities?

I usually will sit in the car if its a live tournament and relax myself, focus on my goals, and mentally prepare. If it’s online usually a little yoga or sitting by the beach. Sometimes I will surf before tournaments as well.

2. If you could pick the brain of anyone in the world for 3 hours, who would he/she be?

Any US President- to see how the game is really played. Probably Clinton.

3. What 3 poker pros should PokerStars sign to their team online roster?

People with personalities, don’t know anyone offhand except for me.

4. What is your favorite way to relieve stress when running bad?

Surfing or sex.

5. How much volume are you playing on Eurosites?

Zero. I think I played one party tournament last year.

6. Why are you not playing mid/high stakes already? If you are, what are the 3 most important things that got you there?

1) Luck

2) Confidence

3) Trust

7. What is the most important positive change you’ve made to your poker approach this year?

Making it about fun. Forgetting the prize pools and focusing on the moment and what play is best.

Future

1. What are your poker and other goals for the next 12 months?

Poker goals are to win a major live tournament (WSOP bracelet). Life goals are to get back in shape, travel, and live life.

2. Are you confident that you will meet those goals? Why?

Yes, because when I want something I find a way to get it.

3. Do you see yourself still playing poker in 10 years?

Absolutely. I will play poker until my last day on earth. I would like to stop playing for a living by the time I am 33. By then I hope to have made enough to invest/do something else and do something good for the world not just myself.

4. Do you have any ambition to coach/teach other players?

Sure. I may start a twitch if I move out of the country again full time.

5. What’s the poker dream for you?

Win the WSOP main event. Retire from full time poker.

6. How do you see the poker landscape changing in the next five years?

People are getting very good. However those who study and have put the time in will always be able to stay ahead of the curve. I see it coming back to the US, I certainly hope that the world gets to play a game with each other again without any politics getting in the way.

7. How much time are you putting into studying financial issues like investing. What are your preferred sources for this? What investments are you making with your poker winnings?

I have invested in the market, a house, and a stock account. I would not presume to predict the market, I will leave that to the professionals.

Other

1. Do you have any regular non-poker hobbies? Whats your favorite way to spend your spare time

Surfing is my favorite. Spending time at a beach surfing is my favorite way to spend time. Also enjoy sports very much and am always watching big games no matter the sport.

2. If you could give you from five years ago (make it ten if over 30) one major piece of advice, what would it be?

Stop trying to force it. Just let it happen and do your best.

3. What are the 3 things everyone should have on their bucket list?

1) Surfing, feeling the power of mother nature this way or another.

2) Travel- I have been very fortunate to see a lot of the world so far through poker.

3) Be kind.

4. Do you follow any poker podcasts or poker players on Twitch?

I have watched Jason a few times, I also quite enjoy Elkys and bigdogpkt5’s.

5. If you could change one thing with online poker, what would that be? What if you could change one thing with live poker?

Legalize it.

With live its different. I feel like some people in the industry.. not naming any names.. are trying to control the game too much, to take the fun out of it. Poker is meant to be a fun game. Also I have quite a beef with this guy Mo at the bike letting people buy in on day 2 for more money. Cmon man…

6. What is the best place and the best restaurant your have ever visited?

Best place was probably Prague. Beautiful city, and the Charles bridge is magnificent.

Best restaurant had to be Graycliff in Bahamas but its tied with El Gaucho steakhouse in Aruba. Graycliff had a guy hand rolling cigars and a piano player, and top top french cooking.

7. Who do you challenge to do the Poker Player Snapshot next and why?

Bryn Kenney, because its all about confidence.

Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu has found himself under fire after PokerStars announced changes to their VIP program. The changes hurt the grinders’ bottom line while not giving much at all back to the recretional players. PokerStars is also not fullfilling the year 2 promises made to the continuing loyal Supernova Elite and Supernova players. Negreanu as the PokerStars lead Pro has always been vocal in the poker community and this time is no exception. He says the changes were inevitable, but the timing and the way PokerStars has handled the communication leaves a lot to be desired.

Negreanu gave a long interview to the cardplayerlifestyle.com where he among various topics briefly discusses the PokerStars VIP changes:

Daniel comments on the VIP changes:

There have been several issues over the years and obviously there’s an issue that’s going on right now in terms of the VIP program and changes that are going on there, that I have a lot of internal conversations about and I think that in terms of what Amaya’s done – and I think they had a lot of learning curves trying to understand the customer base – the way we rolled out information at times wasn’t ideal, to say the least, and I definitely voiced my opinion there.

There were three things that came out after Amaya took over. They were already somewhat in the works, but when you first roll out, and you make these big changes, everything you do is negative. It’s like, this is bad for you, this is bad for you, and this is bad for you. Well, when is the good stuff coming? Definitely, I’ve had some disagreements in terms of how information is released, but I realized that sometimes people and companies make mistakes. In this case, they’ve made several I think. I fully understand both sides of this. I understand the player’s side a lot more in terms of the VIP Program and having a promotion that starts on January 1st, that if you get to Supernova Elite you’ll get the benefits next year, and communicating the changes in November (the eleventh out of the twelve months), even though there were warnings, is not right. In October of 2014 they did mention that there will be substantial changes, potentially. I think you have to be a little more clear and transparent and I’m a big believer of that. If I ever felt as though things were moving in a direction that was not in line with my integrity, I would never move forward with a company. There’s no amount of money, because I have money and my integrity is not for sale. An issue like this is a hot-button issue and the misconception is that a lot of times people think that I’ll say what I have to say because I’m being paid, and it’s not the case.

He has been active on Twitter as well, keeping an open dialogue with fellow players. He seems not to be taking the recent news lightly:

Earlier this year PLO players seeked out for Daniel’s help with PokerStars regarding the PLO ring game rake. Especially the lower limit PLO games are viewed by many almost unbeatable due to the high rake. He promised to look into the issue:

Totally on board and have been for some time on this issue. Coincidentally I have a meeting later today and was already planning on bringing this issue up again. Obviously I can’t make any promises since I don’t have the power to make these decisions, but I can promise you that I will do my best to make a case for an adjustment here. Thanks for the additional summary showing the rake differences between NLHE. I will log that and bring it to the meeting.

…but unfortunately not much good came out of it yet:

You can follow Daniel on Twitter @RealKidPoker

He promised to conduct a blog post addressing these issues in the coming days, stay tuned.

Poker players around have been talking about the recent PokerStars  VIP program changes and what effects it will have on players and on the poker economy as a whole. Many are now worried about the longetivity of online poker. Many also feel that the conversation has been delibrately distracted as a smoke screen with the discussion around third party software, namely, banning the HUDs.

TwoPlusTwo pokercast episode 368 discussed the issue with Phil Galfond and Mike “MeleaB” Brooks. The discusson around the PokerStars VIP club changes starts around the 32 minute mark.  In short summary, Phil Galfond mentioned the issue around HUDs and wasn’t strongly against or for banning them. He finds it interesting to play both with and without HUDs and would be fine with the HUD ban as long as it can be properly enforced. On the PokerStars VIP club, he wasn’t ready to expand on his earlier Twitter comments and needs to take time to consider a statement.

Mike “MeleaB” Brooks is a well-informed grinder who has reached PokerStars SuperNova Elite status multiple times. He sees PokerStars making a push towards lottery/casino types of games where long-term winners will not emerge. That would have a terrible ripple effect of killing the poker economy as a whole as a sustainable poker ecosystem needs both winning players and house to win. The lack of winning regular players would eventually stop the games from running a consistent basis, making playing poker more difficult. He also thinks that PokerStars desperately needs to listen to the “2%”, referring to winning players who contribute most rake. Bouncing of ideas with winning players makes a lot of sense in creating a long-term sustainable system. He also considers artificial intelligence a major risk for the future of online poker and encourages PokerStars to take action against it.

Mike has contributed a number of excellent posts on TwoPlusTwo thread 2016 PokerStars VIP Club, you can read them all here.

The Pokercast host Terrence Chan contributed with a blog post of his own and his view is as gloomy as many other players’ thoughts:

In any case, the implications the new VIP program are huge. The death of the online poker pro has been predicted many times, but this one is as legit as it comes. It won’t be an explosive implosion; the games will not suddenly dry up on January 1, 2016. But at least in the short term, there will be a significant contraction of the money available to win (across all limits) and the marginal pros won’t survive. If you are an online poker pro, and you have not made at least 100k/year in the last two years, you should strongly consider applying for a real job somewhere. If you are an aspiring poker pro and haven’t quite made the leap yet, you need to look long and hard about whether you really want to sign up for this grind. Stars’ goal is to create an equilibrium where everyone is a small loser. It is an uphill battle when you are fighting against the most powerful organization in poker.

The Russian players are planning to strike against PokerStars changes from December 1st to December 3rd. They are gathering interest in the TwoPlusTwo forums thread Joint strike on the 1st–3rd of December …. (REGISTRATION). 

The goals of the strike are:

а) To gather support from active players;
b) To conduct a test strike and estimate its success;
c) To show PokerStars that we care and we’re ready to start pressing before they implement any changes in the VIP-system in 2016.

At the time of this writing over 280 players have made their promise to strike against PokerStars.

RunItOnce Pro Sam Grafton published a blog post titled The Future of Poker in the Post-Boom Era and he urges players to take action to unite and create a powerful force:

The mind-sets and skill levels of winning poker players are not necessarily suited to combating the changes that the big gaming providers are rolling out. Individualism and self-reliance are skills well suited towards adapting to maximise EV in a competitive environment, but less well suited to collective action. We need to demonstrate that we are not passive self-centred consumers who simply accept whatever we’re given. We need to identify where these changes are coming from, who the key decisions makers are and engage them with something which the community does have in plentiful supply; reason and logic. We need to provide the industry with a vision of future growth in which both players and share holders reap the benefits. Above all, now is the time to show that the idea of a poker community is not an empty fiction of marketing conceit, but an active and dynamic collection of people who care about the game and care about the livelihoods of their peers.

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Amaya Inc has reported it Q3 earnings for 2015 and presented strategy outlook for future. Alexander Dreyfus, the head man for GlobalPokerIndex (GPI), was reporting the news on Twitter and he picked out the highlights of the report. Alexander has a long history  and deep knowledge in the online gaming and poker business, here are his thoughts on the report:

Follow Alexander on Twitter @alex_dreyfus. 

Check out the Q3 2015 entire presentation here and http://www.amaya.com/ for more information,

It’s been almost 2 weeks since PokerStars announced major haircuts to their VIP program, affecting the grinders especially.

This week, Amaya Inc, the owner of PokerStars, released it’s Q3 earnings report. Amaya had to lower their guidance for upcoming quarters and they hinted at some future changes coming on PokerStars in form of new poker variant and promotions to lure in new players. The announcement sent the Amaya share on a downward spiral

A lot of players are not convinced that Amaya’s changes to PokerStars will have a desired effect. Here are some thoughts that players have shared on TwoPlusTwo poker forums, where PokerStars takes part in the conversation as well.

TwoPlusTwo member “147_star” shares his thoughts on the Pokerstars VIP club changes plan removal of SNE

Hopefully I will be able to contribute to what has been a pretty decent thread for the most part.

First of all, it is pretty shocking for Pokerstars to label this change like it is a move for the recreationals. If you want to improve the lot for recreational players, reduce their rake and give them more value for their money.

If I earnt a low wage and my government vowed to balance the wage gap, I would expect that to be in the form of a benefit for me, not a punishment of the higher earners. In this scenario, if the government just pocketed the cash to line the pockets of the politicians, both the low and the high earners would be disgrunted and disillusioned. If a teacher was hired to close the gap between the best and the worst students, they would be expected to nurture D’s up to C’s, not A’s down to B’s.

Pokerstars are trying to persuade us that by punishing the regulars that there will be a beneficial knock-on effect for recreational players when the opposite will in fact happen.

Therefore, as a whole community, we can’t buy what they are saying. We need to realise the deflationary effect of these changes. They aren’t helping a D grade get a C grade, they are just making it much more difficult to get an A grade. They aren’t helping you to get a mortgage, they are just causing a slump in the market which is making it harder for everyone.

Put it this way; 100% of the extra rake generated by the changes will be effectively withdrawn by Pokerstars. Not a single $ of this “high stakes tax” will see its way in to games or be regurgitated. A supernova elite, whilst they may withdraw a decent profit each year, will plough the vast majority of their rakeback back in to games and the poker economy.

Due to these changes, the collective balance of disposable cash on Pokerstars will take a significant hit. Pokerstars obviously feel that the poker economy can survive with millions and millions of $ of liquidity out of the game and in their pockets but I urge them not to bite the hand that feeds them. New deposits will not be able to cover the amount taken out of the site and the less money on the site, the lower the prizepools and the downward spiral will continue.

The eventual dream of poker and I’m sure a key aim of Amaya is to get back in to as much of the USA as it can. However, let’s not forget the negative view of online gambling and poker over there and how poker was judged to be a luck game. This was despite the fact that most formats were deep and players posted huge ROI’s, profited every single week and most regs graphs looked like y=xsquared. Contrast that to these days where we have 25bb hyper-turbo formats, lottery prize pools, all-in shootout promotions and the skilled element of poker being muddied by the site being linked with a casino and sportsbook and poker is less of a skill game than ever. Volume was the only thing allowing us a chance to make a decent living with the ever decreasing edges and now you’re punishing us for that too.

So here is my plea, Pokerstars. You earnt your reputation with honest service, good relationships and offering a variety of games. Please remember who you are and don’t try to chase a quick buck and get too greedy like Italy or Spain did because 100% of not a lot is not a lot. If you continue to move the goalposts and make less and less people win (except for the 1 in a million who wins a “lottery”) then that niche you had among the smart, tactical and ambitious portion of the population will be gone and you may never recover from that.

Buffyslayer1 is not convinced either on the same thread

Not really sure why there is such an outpouring of anti ‘pro’ sentiment. Maybe it’s bitterness/jealousy or something but it’s kind of ugly that some are seeing this as a great move because it stiffs pro’s

These changes hurt pro’s, recs and semi serious players really hard now and for the long term.

Plus it seems to keep being overlooked by many. These changes are outright theft for next year.

The sne program is a 2 year program 10 months into it halving it in value is stealing.

Furthermore reducing the value of FPPs by 25% is theft plain and simple.

These things are undeniable even if you ignore all the other changes that are going to be bad long term for the health of poker.

long term stars can do what they want of course change the vip program the way they want.

However, essentially removing high stakes cash games and also reducing the vip program without the corresponding increase to the bottom end (lol 10% chrome) or reducing the rake in certain games (hypers, small stakes plo, limit poker) these games are now unbeatable for nearly all.

What’s going to happen with all this extra money that’s so good for the poker economy some vague ideas of perhaps reload bonus’s or more marketing? If they don’t picket it then it will be directed at spins!

Basically they are going to advertise the form of poker which recs lose the quickest at and is closest to a casino game.

As for poker thay we know and love the games which are still beatable got way tougher.
The guys grinding midstakes with rakeback now won’t win due to the rake being so high.

Also to excerabate this guys playing high stakes will move down to where they get some form of rb.

Yeeeeeea say all the recs/semi serious players kill the rakeback/hud pro’s!

Being too short sighted to realise those guys (who are very good players at those limits and not the hud bots you believe) will drop down a level to a stake they beat comfortably without rake back.

Those guys at the level below find there games got way tougher than before and drop down and so and so forth.

So the rec/semi serious player across any level/buy in they play now lose even harder and quicker because the level of competiton just got way harder.

So people feel that long term these changes are going to be really bad. If the pro stars changes people ITT can’t see this then really I don’t know what to say.

Be happy playing an unbeatable game aka casino games because hey if I can’t win then screw the pro’s.

High stakes player Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky chimed in as well, offering his well-thought view on the situation:

Due to my tilt about Stars’ recent rhetoric I wrote this TL;DR post about how the new changes actually work,

In Stars’ recent (now deleted) Russian press release announcing their new policies, they wrote: “So, what will change for high-level players? On January 1st 2016, we will review the system of rewards, to limit the motivation to*playing*just for the sake of winning.“ The idea of “eliminating winning players” is nonsense, what Stars’ new policy is actually doing is raising the rake, which reduces winrates, which increases Stars’ share of deposits taken through rake as opposed to (eventually) cashed out by winning players.

Let’s start with a thought experiment. Suppose that after every 10k hands played on an account, winning accounts were banned from PokerStars. Would this eliminate winners? I think it’s clear it wouldn’t, assuming anything resembling a normal distribution of winrates. After each set of winners is banned, the formerly breakeven players become the biggest winners for the next 10k hands, and the formerly slightly losing players become winners, etc, and a new distribution with a similar proportions of winrates as the prior distribution is created.

If exclusion of a group(s) of players won’t work, it should be clear that we’ll need to give a distributional answer. In other words, to effect the distribution of winrates and therefore the number of winners something must be done to effect the shape of the curve not just cut off a piece of it.

The most obvious thing that effects the distribution of winners is the rake level. A simple thought experiment shows that changing the rake level is an effective way of reducing the number of winners. Suppose that the distribution of possible winrates for NLHE is between -100 bb/100 (huge whales) and +25 bb/100 (elite level pros in soft games). If the rake level is just set above 25 bb/100, there are now no winners.

For any distribution of winrates that resembles real poker, it’s easy to imagine various rake levels. If the rake is 0, lots of players are winners. If the rake is 10bb/100 and the game is NLHE, comparatively few players are winners. The rake level is the single most important variable driving the number of winners in the population that the sites can directly control. The second important variable is the softness of games (and relatedly) the possible winrates in the form of poker offered (the more -100bb/100 losers as opposed to say -12bb/100 losers, the more pros can survive in even a high rake environment).

There are some other ways to effect the distribution of winrates. One is to drive traffic to games that aren’t capable of high winrates, typically because of a comparatively low skill cap. For example, CAP games have lower winrates than deep games because (arguably) there’s less skill, but certainly because the effect of decision making on EV is lower than in deep games.

Another is to spread games that have variance so high that it’s difficult or impossible to derive a stable enough income to live on through professional play. Spin and Gos are (arguably) an example of this. It’s easy to imagine a game like Spin and Gos where say 80% of the prize pool goes to a 1 in 1 million spin; that sort of game would be hard to play professionally.

If this analysis makes sense, then what is actually meant by the statement “to limit the motivation to*playing*just for the sake of winning.”? Well, we know that Stars’ proposed policy change is going to decrease the rewards drastically for SN and SNE players. Since there isn’t an accompanying increase in the rewards for lower tiered players, what’s actually occurring is that Stars is raising the rake for the population of poker players taken as a whole. Raising the rake for the population as a whole just means there’s a higher rake level, and therefore fewer winners. Additionally, Stars is raising rake drastically for higher volume players who overwhelmingly are winning players. Using the distributional logic laid out before, it’s clear that this will flatten the distribution of possible winrates in the population as well as raise the rake level. Both these effects will reduce the number of winning players at PokerStars, and ultimately increase the percentage of deposits raked by Stars as opposed to won by players.

Whether or not PokerStars takes the feedback seriously remains to be seen. Daniel Negreanu promised to shed more light to the situation in a blog post, but that post has not been published yet. Nutblocker will continue to follow the situation closely, stay tuned for more news.

Henri “I_Mr_U_Bean” Koivisto is a Finnish High Stakes PLO professional. He won the “Breakthough player of the year” at the Finnish Poker Awards this year and proceeded to bink the WCOOP #52 event ($530 PLO, 3-Stack) bracelet.

Enjoy his interview with us!

About You

1. What is your name, age and where are you located? What is your personal twitter account?

Henri Koivisto, 25, Nokia/Finland. Twitter: @imtyrant

2. What are Your online poker Screen names?

Pokerstars: I_Mr_U_Bean, FTP: Im Tyrant

3. How would you define yourself as a poker player? / What poker games do you normally play? Are you learning any new games?

I’ve been playing cash games last 6 years or so, my main games are PLO 10/20 and 25/50, sometimes I mix in some 50/100 shots if games are good enough and my game is on the right track. From time to time I also play some 2.5/5 or 5/10 if I need to get some VPP’s or there isn’t that much action higher. I don’t really have time to work other areas than PLO but at least I try to play most of the WCOOP, SCOOP and TCOOP PLO’s.

4. What do you most enjoy about your job?

Competition and freedom, though it is a bit contradictory to say those things in the same sentence. I mean if you want to battle against the best regulars with positive winrate day in and day out, you can’t be offline too much.

5. Who are the top 3 players in your main game from your home country in your personal opinion?

WRUUUUM, Jeans89 and LrsLzk. No explanations needed in my opinion

6. What reg in your game do you respect most? Can you briefly describe why?

This one goes also for WRUUUUM, he is putting in tremendous amount of hours, isn’t afraid to battle versus the best in the nosebleeds and he is really thinking the game outside of the box. Overall super smart guy!

7. Besides yourself who do you think the most underrated poker player is?

I don’t really know that many players from other countries but I think harskikkels (in Joe Ingram’s dictionary ‘harsickless’), bustoville, IMS DURNK and EEE27 from Finland are very talented players! You should contact them for the future snapshots

Past

1. Why and when did you start playing poker? Do you still play for the same reasons?

After one schoolday in 2006 we went to my friend’s house and right after we were there he realized he had promised to go homegame poker night, so accidentally I also decided to go there to try my luck. I managed to bust both tournaments within 15 minutes or so. The game seemed interesting to me tho and I didn’t want to be sucker so I started to play some freerolls online and ordered bunch of pokerbooks. After some time I won my first ever freeroll for 150usd and started to build my bankroll, I am still on the same path

2. What were the best and worst months of your poker career? What happened?

In 2009 I lost almost my whole bankroll after one fatal party night. At that time I didn’t really care whether I was drunk or not when playing. In the following days I decided to keep the same rules on the tables than with the car the rest of my life, you can either take one or two beers and play or take more and stay off the tables. So that is my biggest losing month, but hey, you never lose, you either win or learn! That night I clearly learned

The best month so far is march 2014 when i run really hot in 5/10 and 10/20 games winning 160k.
3. Are you satisfied with the last 12 months of your poker play?

Yes, last year was huge and this year is going pretty good as well.

4. How did Black Friday impact you? How did you adapt after Black Friday?

Not that much. Before bf I was playing on the eurosites.

5. What was the biggest factor in your development as a player?

After grinding couple of years ludicrous rakerace challenges I started to realize that it is not the amount of hours but the quality of your game what matters. I started to focus more when playing and avoid autopilot, watch training videos regularly (big thanks to mr. Phil Galfond), work with my mental game (thanks to Jared Tendler) and mess around with holdem manager. Also having a big group of friends who doesn’t play poker helps me a lot to get my thought’s somewhere else from time to time.

6. What was the biggest mistake(s) you have done as a poker player?

Grinding rakeraces and sticking with the brm rules when I’ve seen some opportunities to take shots.

7. What’s your biggest prop bet?

We recently made a bet with harskikkels and IMS DURNK that everytime one of us plays casino games or slots you need to transfer 2,5k euros two other guys. None of us have failed so far!

Present

1. How do you prepare for your poker activities?

It depends how I feel. When my game is upturn, I am almost always ready to play right away when I wake up (if I don’t have any other things to do). If my game is derailing then I probably work with HEM for couple of hours before starting sessions to find if I’ve been playing bad or just running bad.

2. If you could pick the brain of anyone in the world for 3 hours, who would he/she be?

Elon Musk, so impressive guy with brilliant innovations to help humankind live more environmentally friendly. Maybe big part of my choice is also his will and fervour to do things he enjoys and sees value.

3. What 3 poker pros should PokerStars sign to their team online roster?

Probably not the greatest idea to sign pokerpros except Phil Galfond might the one and only. I think taking some conspicuous guys from the sports world (like C.Ronaldo and Neymar) is better way to go.

4. What is your favorite way to relieve stress when running bad?

Take some time off the tables and come back rested and fresh minded. Maybe taking shorter sessions when running bad works for me as well.

5. How much volume are you playing on Eurosites?

Not that much because Supernova Elite keeps me busy enough on stars

6. Why are you not playing mid/high stakes already? If you are, what are the 3 most important things that got you there?

Planning the perfect route FOR YOU to get there and then excecuting it and making minor changes every day along the way. It is also important that you don’t give too much respect to guys who are rumoured to be pokergods in the higher stakes when you start to play in those line-ups. Otherwise you are too afraid to play against them and end up losing. They all make mistakes. However the other side of the coin is that of course you should absorb as much information as possible from them to get new weapons to your arsenal. After all I would say that the most important thing is that all the effort in the world won’t matter if you are not inspired and ready to work heck of a lot to get there.

7. What is the most important positive change you’ve made to your poker approach this year?

Haven’t changed too much because last year was super. Maybe I’ve been talking little bit more hh’s with some other great poker minds and doing some interesting researches with HEM2.

Future

1. What are your poker and other goals for the next 12 months?

Hmm, I don’t really like to make money based goals for obvious reasons so I should say keeping the same volume than last year and this year.

2. Are you confident that you will meet those goals? Why?

Yep, it isn’t that hard to spend 100-160hrs in a month around the thing you like to do. Most of the people are spending the same time in the jobs they hate.
3. Do you see yourself still playing poker in 10 years?

If I still have the same passion to play than I’ve had last 9 years then it is possible. But hard to say, there are so many things in life you start to value more when you grow up that even my dreammachine can’t calculate the exact solution what is going to happen

4. Do you have any ambition to coach/teach other players?

I’ve been doing some columns for Pokeritieto.com how to use HEM/HUD effectively. Those reads are available only in Finnish at the moment tho.

5. What’s the poker dream for you?

Hmm, at the moment I don’t have any real poker dreams. Of course it would be cool to win more dollars with higher winrate and play the nosebleeds every day but you have to be realistic and go there with the small steps. Getting there requires a lot of work, sweat, determination and effort but maybe you can categorice that as some kind of goal instead of dream. Now I remember that back in the days I dreamed about playing 2.5/5+ games professionally and buy own house with the poker winnings. I have made both of those things so maybe I am now living the life that once was my dream

6. How do you see the poker landscape changing in the next five years?

I don’t really want to speculate too much on this topic.

7. How much time are you putting into studying financial issues like investing. What are your preferred sources for this? What investments are you making with your poker winnings?

At the moment not that much, because it is hard to master two field at the same time. Maybe in the future I’ll be more interested in that line of business, at least it has some similarities to poker. I have invested some of my winnings but I rather keep those things on my own

Other

1. Do you have any regular non-poker hobbies? Whats your favorite way to spend your spare time?

I play ice-hockey on winter time and on the summer nothing is more relaxing than fishing on a lake. I try to spend as much time as possible with my friends and family as well. It is also important to have time on your own, then grabbing guitar or good book is all what you need!

2. If you could give you from five years ago (make it ten if over 30) one major piece of advice, what would it be?

Umm, tough question, overall I’ve been pretty happy with all the decisions I’ve made in the last 5 years.
3. What are the 3 things everyone should have on their bucket list?

Hard to anwer this one because everyone is unique and people have different preferences. In general I would say do more what makes you happy and let go of the things that weigh you down

4. Do you follow any poker podcasts or poker players on Twitch?

I’ve been watching some of Joe Ingram’s pods.

5. If you could change one thing with online poker, what would that be? What if you could change one thing with live poker?

Online I would remove normal tables and make it zoom only. Maybe there could be Poker Olympics in every four years also heh. Live I am waiting for Elon Musk to make Live HUD possible one way or other

6. What is the best place and the best restaurant your have ever visited?

Selanne Steak Tavern on Laguna Beach, CA.

7. Who do you challenge to do the Poker Player Snapshot next and why?

Would be nice to hear some thoughts from EEE27 or bustoville about their success in 2015. Those guys have progressed a lot this year!

Listen to this TwoPlusTwo PokerCast as Matthew Hilger, known as “PokerStars Matthew” on the TwoPlusTwo forums and PokerStars’ PokerStars Head of VIP and Poker Promotions discusses the recent changes that will have a negative impact on majority of grinders.

Matthew is on air as the last hour of the PokerCast starts.

Pokercast 387 – Joe McKeehen, Shaun Deeb & PokerStars Matthew 

This week on the Pokercast: 25 year old Joe McKeehen won the Main Event last night (Nov 10) and tonight we got him in the show! To kick things off Terrence reviews his trip to Macau and Adam inducts Shaun Deeb into the IPWOF, Shaun joins us and reminisces about his time as an (somewhat irresponsible) internet wiz kid and then we get the man of the hour on. Joe McKeehen joins us from Vegas a night after going wire to wire as dominating chip leader in the November 9. Joe talks more openly than he could before about his preparation for the final table, some tells he picked up during play, the bracelet and his plans for the future. After a break our friend Ryan “Protential” Laplante joins us to review the final table, the broadcast and run through this years November Niners. The guys talk strategy and review some of the interesting and important hands that were on the show. Matthew Hilger joins us from the Pokerstars VIP club after the break to talk about the very controversial changes that were announced over the last couple of weeks. Matt explains the companies reasons for the changes and answers questions that 2+2ers had about them. We share the password to the Pokercast Invitationals and then review some of Ross’ hands before we finish the show.

The Finnish high stakes PLO player by the screen name WRUUUUM has been crushing hard lately and reached $2M winnings, here are  the graphs he posted on his Finnish poker forum blog on Pokerisivut.com:

In USD:

In big blinds:

He answers the question of the Top 5 PLO players in the world as he mentions that he might not be Top 5 player, but fits in the Top 10:

It’s pretty clear that Ben86, Ike and Sauce are Top 3…more than that I’m not willing to speculate, but that’s a pretty clear Top 3.

Tom “LearnedFromTV” Chambers is a PLO player and coach who has taken the PLO theory to a new level. Already years ago he wrote an advanced PLO theory book that very much relevant still today. He has written material for Nutblocker as well that consists of the topics discussed in his book, list of the Nutblocker material can be found below. But let’s first have a look at the book and other material he has produced:

His book, “Advanced PLO Theory” consists of two parts:

• Advanced PLO Theory  Volume 1: Theory Foundations (294 pages) is focused on the structural fundamentals of pot-limit omaha, including combinatorics, equity, expected value, and game theory.
• Advanced PLO Theory  Volume 2: Six-Max Strategy (547 pages) is a comprehensive analysis of six-handed pot-limit omaha.

You can also buy individual modules from the book, everything is available at his website plotheory.com

He has also contributed to Cardrunners.com with a video series that grasps on the main concepts of his book, check out the videos PLO Postflop Theory on Cardrunners.

As for the material on Nutblocker, dere are Tom’s free articles:

• PLO Core Concepts Tom Chambers (LearnedfromTV)
• The Purpose of a Bet Tom Chambers (LearnedfromTV)
• The Power of Card Removal – Range versus Range on the River by Tom Chambers (LearnedfromTV)

We have more of Tom’s material on our Silver VIP section, but those articles are only available for our Silver VIP members. To become a Silver VIP, read more HERE.

Don’t forget our year-end Silver VIP Promotion!

The Tom Chambers material on the Silver VIP consists of the following articles:

• PLO – Preflop Style in PLO by Tom ‘LearnedfromTV’ Chambers
• PLO – Pushing Hands and Pulling Hands in PLO by Tom ‘LearnedfromTV’ Chambers
• PLO – The Parameters of a Postflop Situation by Tom ‘LearnedfromTV’ Chambers
• PLO – Facing Limpers in Position in PLO The 602020 Rule by Tom ‘LearnedfromTV’ Chambers
• PLO – Backdoor Draws, Part 1 by Tom ‘LearnedfromTV’ Chambers
• PLO – Backdoor Draws, Part 2 by Tom ‘LearnedfromTV’ Chambers
• PLO – Four-betting light by Tom ‘LearnedfromTV’ Chambers
• PLO – Estimating Multi-Street EV (Part 1) by Tom ‘LearnedfromTV’ Chambers
• PLO – Estimating Multi-Street EV (Part 2) by Tom ‘LearnedfromTV’ Chambers
• PLO – Game Theory, Poker, and PLO (Part 1) Intro to Game Theory by Tom ‘LearnedfromTV’ 
• PLO – Game Theory, Poker, and PLO (Part 2) Ex-Showdown Equity by Tom ‘LearnedfromTV’ Chambers
• PLO – Advanced PLO Theory Module 5A – Expected value by Tom “LearnedFromTV” Chambers
• PLO – Advanced PLO Theory Module 11B – Turn Texture by Tom “LearnedFromTV” Chambers

As you can see, there’s plenty to study at Nutblocker Silver VIP, so make sure you sign up now!

High stakes poker player Dani “Ansky” Stern is not sitting silently on the sidelines while PokerStars is changing their VIP program. He is encouraging players to join him and others on a strike, where players won’t play any poker games on PokerStars between December 1st and 3rd.

He has already before been very active voicing his opinions on the issue:

• Highstakes pro Dani “Ansky” Stern speaks up against the PokerStars VIP changes
• Dani “Ansky” Stern on Joey Ingram podcast discussing PokerStars VIP cuts

He created a thread on TwoPlusTwo poker forums Strike/Boycott of PokerStars December 1st-3rd (xpost from Internet Poker):

Hey everyone,

There has been a thread in Internet Poker for some time now, but I thought I should make sure there was one in NVG as well, given how much traffic there is here. If you are interested in signing up, please post in the other thread as well as this one so that everyone is able to keep track of the numbers.

Joint strike on the 1st–3rd of December …. (REGISTRATION), other Amaya/Stars protests

What is happening?

PokerStars/Amaya has announced an aggressive overhaul of the 2016 VIP system. They have deceived SNE players about benefits they would receive, are discontinuing the SNE program, and they have completely removed all rewards for high stakes (5/10+) cash games. While PokerStars claims the changes are to provide relief to recreational players, there is no such change happening. They are telling their players outright lies, and we will not stand for it. Beyond that, it follows an ongoing trend that PokerStars/Amaya has been taking in recent years. A site that was once clearly for the players, has completely lost sight of that.

I did my best to outline the changes and why they are so outrageous in this post:
Pokerstars VIP club changes plan removal of SNE

What are we doing about it?

We are organizing a strike/boycott of PokerStars from December 1st-3rd, starting at 12:01 AM EST. We ask everyone who values the game of poker at all, recreational or pro, to show their support. We especially ask those who put in high volume on Stars to do so. Please do not play a hand of poker on PokerStars for those 72 hours. It goes without saying that games are likely to be softer on those days, and we hope that you can resist the urge to play because of that. I truly believe that these changes will bring about devastating effects to the online poker community.

What’s the point of a strike?

No one has any illusions of sinking PokerStars stock with a 3 day strike, or bringing down the company. That’s not what this is about. This is a demonstration of force, and an effort to show PokerStars that we are a body of players, and not just individuals. We have the ability to act as one, to make our voices heard, and to rally players behind a fair grievance. PokerStars has made it clear they do not respect us, so we need to demonstrate that we are able to fight back with volume and force.

Why should Stars care? Don’t they want less pros on the site anyway?
I very thoroughly address that here:
Re: Pokerstars VIP club changes plan removal of SNE

Where do I sign up?
Here! Joint strike on the 1st–3rd of December …. (REGISTRATION), other Amaya/Stars protests

Please sign, preferably with your PS name, VPP count, and what games you play. And beyond that, please tell your friends.

If anyone has any questions at all, please ask. Ask me, ask this thread, just get involved! I want everyone to be passionate about this. PokerStars has got to understand that we will not take this lying down. The fight is on, this is the first battle and we will continue fighting as long as we need to.

Thank you,
Dani Stern

Over a thousand players have already signed up to support the strike. Some big profile players have joined the ranks to protest PokerStars, highligted in this made by “forhayley”, one the best NLHE high stakes players today: Link to the post.

Other notable High Stakes players are joining the strike too:

Joey Ingram with a couple of interesting PLO guests.

Jonas “Liqqa” Gjelstadt is a longtime HSPLOer on Stars who is mainly focusing on sports betting and his product EdgeBet with some poker mixed in right now.

Anssi “Baadger” Mustonen is a long-term Finnish PLO pro who is chasing his SuperNova Elite on PokerStars.

It’s fair to say that November was an eventful month in online poker. PokerStars announced massive cuts to their VIP program, and players reacted as expected. All these news and much more, such as Poker Player Snapshots were on Nutblocker agenda in November. Check them out below.

Don’t forget Nutblocker Rakeback deals, they offer the best value on the market at the moment. We’re also running a promo “Rake $100 under Nutblocker deals, get Nutblocker Silver VIP for free!”, make sure to check it out.

For personal rakeback tutoring or any question, please contact us at

• emeraldpokerdeals@gmail.com
• emeraldpokerdeals on Skype

Views

PokerStars needs to produce big winners to incentivize people to chase the poker dream

Nutblocker

Nutblocker Rakeback – find a new poker room for 2016

Rake $100 under Nutblocker deals, get Nutblocker Silver VIP for free!

Strategy

Tom “LearnedFromTV” Chambers PLO theory on Nutblocker

Poker Player Snapshot

Poker Player Snapshot: Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin – “I thought Black Friday was a joke”

Poker Player Snapshot – Henri “I_Mr_U_Bean” Koivisto: “Last year was huge for me”

Blogs

napsus blog: fear, frustration and good times (tl;dr w/ pics)

Podcasts

Dani “Ansky” Stern on Joey Ingram podcast discussing PokerStars VIP cuts

PokerStars Matthew on VIP changes on TwoPlusTwo PokerCast

Liqqa and Baadger latest PLO guests on Joey Ingram podcast

News

PokerStars introduces major changes to their VIP program – grinders affected the most

Highstakes pro Dani “Ansky” Stern speaks up against the PokerStars VIP changes

Daniel Negreanu on PokerStars VIP changes: I’m officially stressed at a 9 out of 10. Lots on my plate at the moment.

Poker players react to PokerStars VIP cuts, calling for collective action

Amaya Inc reports results and PokerStars strategy outlook, @alex_dreyfus reports

Players react to PokerStars VIP cuts on TwoPlusTwo poker forums

WRUUUUM crushing PLO, lists Top 3 PLO players

Dani “Ansky” Stern strongly supports Dec 1-3rd strike against PokerStars

PokerStars is cutting VIP rewards, Nutblocker Rakeback is bringing more value than ever! With our year-end promotion, you can get Nutblocker Silver VIP when you only rake $100 on selected sites. Check out the promo and profit!

Get in contact with us if you are moving from PokerStars for 2016 and need personalized counceling where to play:

• emeraldpokerdeals@gmail.com
• emeraldpokerdeals on Skype

Here are some of the highlights for December, click on the banner for more info and sign up:

Dani “Ansky” Stern has been very vocal against the VIP changes on PokerStars and is actively supporting the ongoing strike against PokerStars.

He’s been actively promoting the cause on his Twitter @TheRealAnsky

On TwoPlusTwo he commented to a player who said he would strike, but changed his mind after signing up:

As someone who certainly has more info than you, I can assure you that this strike is having a positive effect. But rest assured, most of those who said they would strike actually did, and you can reap the rewards of their efforts.

On a personal utility level, I can’t possibly convince people to boycott. That’s kind of the entire point of this though, isn’t it? Stars is convinced that they can apply infinite pressure to us with no repercussions because we are unquestionably self serving, and we will never unite in a meaningful way. The fact is though, I am asking everyone to trust me that the overall pressure and PR associated with this is having an impact. I am working extremely hard on all of this in public, and even harder in private, and I would love if others would join in. On the other hand, you could get a few hands in of 5/10 while you still can get vpps .

Dani also reminds people that the 3rd party software discussion has been a distraction from the main issue:

…and points out the real issue:

And he might not even be done yet!

Joe Ingram talked with him and Daniel Negreanu recently about the PokerStars VIP topics in two separate podcasts:

In the aftermath of PokerStars VIP announcement, competitors are taking action to gain market share. The most visible promotions come from 888 Poker, who decided to take the following actions announced by the 888Rep on TwoPlusTwo Forums:

Hey Guys,
Following many requests to enhance our offering this week, we decided to make the next few days special by taking action on 3 fronts:

1. We will add a couple of new daily tournaments and satellites
2. We will increase guaranteed prizes of many scheduled tournaments
3. We will reduce the rake on Omaha cash games (200PL and up) from 5% to 2.5%

The new tournaments:

1. 13:00 GMT – $5,000 guaranteed 8-max – Special! ($55 buy-in)
2. 15:00 GMT – $5,000 guaranteed Turbo – Special! ($30 buy-in)

If you wanna sign up to 888 Poker, check out the Nutblocker Rakeback offer on 888:

• $600 signup bonus
• VIP program worth up to 37%

Anssi “Baadger” Mustonen is a fresh SuperNova Elite on PokerStars who plays PLO $2,5/$5 ZOOM as his main game. He recently visited Joey Ingram podcast, check out the link at the end of the Snapshot.

About You

1. What is your name, age and where are you located? What is your personal twitter account?

Anssi Mustonen, 25, Helsinki Finland. I don’t use twitter yet.

2. What are Your online poker Screen names?

baadger on pokerstars

3. How would you define yourself as a poker player? / What poker games do you normally play?  Are you learning any new games?

I’m an online PLO 6-max grinder, playing stakes from 1-2 to 10-20, but mainly 500zoom on stars where I’m reaching supernova elite this year for the first time. I’m not learning any new games, sometimes I try to luckbox Sunday donkaments.

4. What do you most enjoy about your job?

Freedom and being your own boss, self-employed, and money of course. It’s really nice to work in your own livingroom.

5. Who are the top 3 players in your main game from your home country in your personal opinion?

EEE27, bustoville, I_MR_U_BEAN, although their main game is 5-10+

6. What reg in your game do you respect most? Can you briefly describe why?

Jeans89, he has all the qualities of successful poker player, works hard and also knows how to enjoy life.

7. Besides yourself who do you think the most underrated poker player is?

duubadaaba

Past

1. Why and when did you start playing poker?  Do you still play for the same reasons?

I think I started 7 years ago with 5e sitngo’s with my friends after seeing the WPT broadcasts on tv. I wanted to be the guy on TV that binks 1 million score. Then it was money and fame, now mainly for the money.

2. What were the best and worst months of your poker career? What happened?

My best month was when I was 7th in an anniversary Sunday Million 2012 and we made a deal in the ft. which got me 239 000$. From cash games I have couple months +50-100k, and some -20-30k. Nothing special on those, just heaters / doomswitches.

3. Are you satisfied with the last 12 months of your poker play?

I decided to go for supernova elite on stars this year. It’s been a tough grind and harder than I thought, I miss the freedom of not having to grind. I’m not satisfied with the level of play I brought to the tables, way too much autopilot and B-game. That and not studying probably why I didn’t quite make my monetary goals.

4. How did Black Friday impact you? How did you adapt after Black Friday?

I had couple thousand stuck there, but got them back later. Didn’t affect me much.

5. What was the biggest factor in your development as a player?

It’s been a steady improvement, figuring out things as I play. I used to only think spots in a vacuum, but now I also think how playing certain spots affect my overall gameplan and ranges.

6. What was the biggest mistake(s) you have done as a poker player?

Not grinding and studying the game hard enough 5 years ago.

7. What’s your biggest prop bet?

I bet 2k on the yaarny prop bet, have not done any big prop bets myself. Some sport bets against friends.

Present

1. How do you prepare for your poker activities?

I wake up, drink coffee and water, go through my bookmarks in my browser, put some good music or podcast on and start grinding.

2. If you could pick the brain of anyone in the world for 3 hours, who would he/she be?

Ben86 and use it as free coaching

3. What 3 poker pros should PokerStars sign to their team online roster?

Ilari_FIN, Isildur1 and Dan Bilzerian

4. What is your favorite way to relieve stress when running bad?

Hanging with my girlfriend, sports, watching good tv, travelling.

5. How much volume are you playing on Eurosites?

All my volume was on eurosites 2010-2013, 2014-2015 almost all my volume has been on Pokerstars. 2016 I’m probably gonna play around half of my volume on eurosites.

6. Why are you not playing mid/high stakes already? If you are, what are the 3 most important things that got you there?

You have to be extremely talented or hardworking or both to get to high stakes, and I’m neither.

7. What is the most important positive change you’ve made to your poker approach this year?

Grinding attitude, being able to put high volume even on bad months.

Future

1. What are your poker and other goals for the next 12 months?

Poker wise I still want to be a winner next year, less volume but better quality of play. Other goals are to travel and to finish my University of Applied sciences degree, where I’m only short of thesis and couple courses.

2. Are you confident that you will meet those goals? Why?

Yes I’m confident, you need to have confidence in yourself in everything you are doing.

3. Do you see yourself still playing poker in 10 years?

As a professional no. Probably playing live poker couple times a year.

4. Do you have any ambition to coach/teach other players?

Only if I’m in need for money, which probably doesn’t make me a good coach then. So no. I did like 20 hours of coaching couple years ago and it went ok, though.

5. What’s the poker dream for you?

I WANT MILLION. Seriously though, getting my own apartment and money to travel is enough for me.

6. How do you see the poker landscape changing in the next five years?

Online gets tougher every year, but I think 1-2 and smaller will be decently beatable games, as long as the bots don’t take over and the rake doesn’t get higher. It’s too small for the crushers to drop down to. Live poker will be soft always.

7. How much time are you putting into studying financial issues like investing. What are your preferred sources for this? What investments are you making with your poker winnings? 

I’m not putting any time to it currently, I have money invested in my apartment.

Other

1. Do you have any regular non-poker hobbies? Whats your favorite way to spend your spare time?

I go to crossfit, floorball and other sports like badminton. I also like to watch good tv-series, football and Dota 2.

2. If you could give you from five years ago (make it ten if over 30) one major piece of advice, what would it be?

Study and grind hard now to make a lot of money when it’s still easy. Don’t play so much computer games.

3. What are the 3 things everyone should have on their bucket list?

Travel around the world, watch breaking bad/wire/game of thrones, do a bungee jump/sky diving etc.

4. Do you follow any poker podcasts or poker players on Twitch?

Joeingram1, jnandez87

5. If you could change one thing with online poker, what would that be? What if you could change one thing with live poker?

I was thinking about a system for a 6max table, lets say there is one person sitting, and then a (fun) player joins the table. Then there would be a 30second timespan for everyone else who clicked to join that table would be added to a playerpool, and after 30seconds site would randomly pick 4 next players to the table. Live poker maybe chess clock or something to make it go faster.

6. What is the best place and the best restaurant your have ever visited?

I really enjoyed Las Vegas, also La Grave in the Alpes was really nice. Farang in Finland is the best restaurant I have been.

7. Who do you challenge to do the Poker Player Snapshot next and why?

eee27, he’s such a beast grinder, and not many people outside Finland know much about him.

Anssi as Joey’s guest:

PokerStars VP of Corporate Communications Eric Hollreiser released a new statement from PokerStars regarding four $1m freerolls added to PokerStars offer for 2016, and also more information on VIP changes.

We are happy to announce plans to hold four $1 million freeroll tournaments in 2016 on PokerStars. These tournaments will surely create buzz and generate excitement among players at all skill and experience levels and the injection of $4 million into the economy will help many players’ bankrolls. These tournaments will be on top of an already exciting – though not-yet-announced – series of promotions, events and new products that are planned for 2016.

These news, however, are not as much news as some might think. A number of observant and well-informed poker players who are active on Twitter immediately released that the same four $1m freerolls were taken away from the PokerStars Supernova VIP program.

Good guy Pokerstars! Takes away 4 million dollar freerolls and then leads press release off with great news 4 million dollar freerolls!! Wow

— Apex Papi ♠️♥️♣️ (@Joeingram1) December 10, 2015

To anyone wondering. They literally took away 4 1mm supernova freerolls, and now added 4 1mm freerolls back. https://t.co/UOtYGTMbOu

— Dani Stern (@TheRealAnsky) December 10, 2015

The statement has sparked a flame of negativity towards PokerStars, lead by some of the most prominent names in online poker:

You'd think a communications expert at a multibillion $ company would be able to hide his contempt for the customers https://t.co/NKKnuDqSEa

— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) December 10, 2015

This comes as reaction to PokerStars very poor communication on the matter, as Hollreiser acknowledges in the statement:

Some of our players feel we have not met their expectations in the recently announced changes to the PokerStars VIP program. Indeed, some players who support the VIP changes feel we should have done a better job communicating the changes. We first announced that there would be significant changes to the 2016 VIP program in October 2014, following a comprehensive review we had undertaken earlier that year, and repeated this several times throughout 2015, including telling players that details would be provided in October. In fact, we had considered making significant VIP changes to take effect in January 2015, but our new ownership at Amaya chose to delay the changes for another year.

In hindsight, we could have communicated to players more often that significant changes were coming in 2016. We could have been more explicit that these changes would be significant and would take effect in 2016. And we could have noted this on our VIP web pages that gave details of the program. There was no intention to deceive and certainly not to profit from this, as an increase in the number of Supernova Elites, who are on average net withdrawing players, does not provide a financial benefit to us. It was simply a function of a long internal process and an honest belief that we had given players sufficient notice.

Dani “Ansky” Stern was far from satisfied with the apology, and cannot find any repeated warnings anywhere:

,@erichollreiser Can you clarify what you mean when you say players were repeatedly warned through 2015 of VIP club changes? Where exactly?

— Dani Stern (@TheRealAnsky) December 10, 2015

After repeated posts of “we could have done more”….

…Hollreiser proceeds to search for the said forum posts where the VIP changes were “repeated several times throughout 2015”. Whether he finds them, remains to be seen.

@TheRealAnsky I will look thru forum posts. I will come to same conclusion as I said in blog: we could have done more. I am sorry.

— Eric Hollreiser (@erichollreiser) December 10, 2015

This furthermore enraged the players:

I still don't get it though. @erichollreiser had weeks to write 1 newsletter. How can he need to go find the posts NOW?

— Brian Horton (@ZBTHorton) December 10, 2015

The ENTIRE argument questions whether we had warning. How does he not know how much warning they gave? That's the only damn point.

— Brian Horton (@ZBTHorton) December 10, 2015

If I was VP of Corporate Communications and someone doubted my communication. I would find out how much communication we did.

— Brian Horton (@ZBTHorton) December 10, 2015

Meanwhile PokerStars claims that everything was going better than before during the three day boycott:

We have been taking steps – across the whole business – to address these changes. The recent three-day boycott by some players that disagree with our announced VIP changes did not have a significant impact on PokerStars, as traffic actually spiked through the period as a result of the start of our long-planned holiday promotion.

Of course that doesn’t mean it went unnoticed by us. We care very deeply about what players say and what they expect of us. And we strive to live up to their expectations.

…this statement comes as surprise when PokerStars has not continued the most important communication route with the players, the meetings with players. GoGetARealJob, who actively participated in the meetings, even wrote an Open Letter to PokerStars Regarding Player Meetings but never received a reply.

On a positive note, Daniel Negreanu announced on his latest blog post that this would change:

I was also able to ensure that players would have the opportunity to meet with the higher ups from here on out to discuss important issues in regards to the relationship between the company and the players. That has always been something PokerStars has done effectively, and it will continue to happen. I spoke with Dani Stern and Isaac Haxton as well as many other top online pros about joining me and the upper management in regularly scheduled meetings. I think this is extremely important. Communication the last 12-18 months between the players and the company has not been good enough and I think this will go a long way towards improving it.

 

Hollreiser adds

We will not alter those plans. The current VIP program is no longer fit for its purpose. When combined with the increasing skill gap in the online poker market, the result is an increasingly poor experience for recreational and new players.

And fires at professional poker players

In that spirit of transparency, we can tell you that we did see effects from the recent boycott that give us even greater confidence that our strategy is on the right track to improve the health of the ecosystem. During the three-day boycott we recorded the healthiest consecutive three-day ecosystem results of the year with steady net gaming revenue, even though our net-depositing players lost at a much lower rate than they have all year. As we have seen with Spin & Go’s, which have higher retention levels than cash games due to the increased winning experiences provided to all players, we believe this decreased loss rate will result in those players’ deposits lasting longer and retention rates improving, resulting in more deposits and more money in the system because players are enjoying their time at the tables more. This is the right foundation for us to build upon.

Phil Galfond is not satisfied with these words

"[setup expert segue into thing I've been drying to say] Oh, speaking of that, your strike proved you're worthless!" pic.twitter.com/B3zyifyOq2

— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) December 10, 2015

Galfond tweeted again later on his frustration about the Amaya as a company:

#couldhavedonemore pic.twitter.com/9Sl4I9DrHn

— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) December 10, 2015

On a positive note for the players everywhere, Ansky is not done yet

People have been asking me whats next wrt to #boycottpokerstars. It's not over. Gathering data on strike, figuring out effective plans.

— Dani Stern (@TheRealAnsky) December 8, 2015

Steve O’Dwyer made history at the PokerStars EPT Prague 50,000€ Super High Roller by winning it the second time in his career for 746,543€ , but that wasn’t the main story of the evening.

The most notable event was players protesting PokerStars recent VIP Club changes with the t-shirts they were wearing (“We are against the changes in the PokerStars VIP program”), thereby sending a strong message to the poker world that poker player will stand up against unreasonable changes and broken promises.

Here are relevant tweets of the protest:

3 players wearing "we are allin" shirt at the #EPTPrague SHR final table.We have still plenty of them left in Prague pic.twitter.com/LVWY115R41

— TiltBook (@Tiltbook_com) December 10, 2015

Renko Rinkema tweeted pictures of Sam Greenwood and Steve O’Dwyer going to Heads-up battle in the Super High Roller event:

Here are @steveodwyer and @samgreenwood14 going heads up for the #EPTPrague SHR title. pic.twitter.com/YQfhwiejGx

— Remko Rinkema (@RemkoMedia) December 10, 2015

For what it’s worth, that was Steve and Sam posing for the official heads-up photo. Sam even tried to put a third shirt over the trophy.

— Remko Rinkema (@RemkoMedia) December 10, 2015

PokerStars congratulated O’Dwyer:

Congratulations to @steveodwyer who's won the #EPTPrague €50,000 Super Hiigh Roller: https://t.co/xyWLxSLVzS pic.twitter.com/D1QPNt8gZ4

— PokerStarsBlog (@PokerStarsBlog) December 10, 2015

But O’Dwyer is not happy:

. @PokerStarsBlog thanks, but I prefer this photo from @MannyDaxwell (despite the harsh lighting) pic.twitter.com/M9cueS83ZU

— steveodwyer (@steveodwyer) December 10, 2015

Mike “MeleaB” Brooks has been one of the most vocal and active poker players fighting against the PokerStars recent VIP club changes. The changes saw massive reductions in VIP rewards across the board and is seen by many players as a money grab.

MeleaB posted a new thread on TwoPlusTwo poker forums on the topic of “The Current “Unsustainable” Poker Environment is a Myth“. He bases his views on the following factors:

• An ever growing online gambling market.
• INCREASED new sign-ups for Pokerstars during 2015.
• Having games that have got tougher every year for the past 5+ years that make it APPEAR like this trend is inevitable.
• A poker environment that hasn’t deteriorated BECAUSE of winning players.
• How an unquestioned public belief in this myth facilitates support for Pokerstars making drastic changes.
• Pokerstars have started to further increase the focus on this point in recent posts, podcasts, and interviews, and virtually everything they put out in the public now is part of a carefully constructed PR campaign.
• No solid evidence from Pokerstars to support their claim

He continues:

I spoke about my belief on the 2+2 pokercast last month, but I haven’t seen much posted about the views of others questioning the current “unsustainable” poker environment. I believe that it is a myth that has been given plenty of momentum by what amounts to propaganda from Pokerstars’ PR team in order to facilitate their latest changes, which are basically nothing other than a strategy to take a larger slice of the net depositor’s profits (and change the face of the game.)

This is arguably the view of the most players voicing their opinions against the changes. The reductions in the VIP program have been justified with vague promises of putting the money into new player acquisitions and promotions, with not much to show for up til this point.

Brooks explaings the changing poker landscape and the increasing regular player to recretional player ratio:

Now, it’s true that we have experienced a changing landscape over the years, but that is because online poker was a fledgling entity until very recently. Among other things we have seen the removal of the USA players from the worldwide pool of players, the resettling of American pro “refugees”, the segregation of players from Spain, Italy and France (other further resettling of pros from those countries), the regulation of online poker by a growing number of countries and the related costs, plus of course the emergence of poker education in various forms.

And he predicts future game environments with graphical illustration:

The online gaming market is also on the rise:

He goes on to criticize Daniel Negreanu’s views on online poker market and also recent communication from PokerStars VP Eric Hollreiser, who is responsible for corporate communications:

Daniel Negreanu is inexperienced when it comes to understanding the online environment. He frequently mentions “unsustainable environment” quotes but with nothing to back it up. As for Eric Hollreiser, for someone who is the VP of Communications, he doesn’t know how to communicate very well, much like a Tea Lady who can’t make a pot of tea. Here’s a quote of his from this week’s press release: “During the three-day boycott we recorded the healthiest consecutive three-day ecosystem results of the year…” Does anyone actually know what that means, and by what metrics they formed that conclusion? Of course not, because it is simply concocted to fit in with the impression they want to portray. Lee Jones worded it as “during the boycott the ecosystem health was the best it’s been in a very long time, which means that players’ deposits were lasting longer, they were losing money more slowly, which translates into a better experience for recreational and casual players…” but it’s just the same nonsense. They are obviously making a conscious effort to mention their concern for the ecosystem as frequently as possible now. He went on to comment that they had “a business intelligence team” that recognised the ecosystem was getting worse and worse at an ever increasing rate. I would question that claim, and suggest they are attempting to further present an apocalyptic poker landscape for their own benefit.

Negreanu also revealed growth in a private Skype conversation, which Brooks cites and goes on to acknowledge that the Spin and Go tournaments that PokerStars offer are nothing short of a lottery type poker environment:

In a private Skype group with a handful of players last month, which somebody made public, Negreanu let it be known that “We [Pokerstars] did have an 18% increase in sign-ups this year, but they are obviously losing their deposits at a much faster rate, over 40% faster.” The fact that they are experiencing a growth in sign-ups doesn’t seem in keeping with an unsustainable poker environment. As for the increased rate at which deposits are lost, interestingly what we’ve seen during this last year is the emergence of the very popular fast-paced Spin n Goes, so I know where I’d be looking if I were seeking an explanation for why those deposits are getting spent quicker.

Brooks concludes that he is confident his analysis despite not seeing the numbers:

I cannot claim to be 100% certain of my belief without access to the numbers that Pokerstars have at their disposal of course, but I am confident that it is correct. It is most certainly worthy of consideration by others. Too often a podcast, post or interview with a question directed towards a Pokerstars spokesperson will lead with something along the lines “we all know the current climate is unsustainable…” but I’m suggesting that they and others in the community at least question that assumption.

If you wish to share your opinion and take part in the conversation, go to The Current “Unsustainable” Poker Environment is a Myth on TwoPlusTwo poker forums.