After a lengthy exchange on TwoPlusTwo poker forum and Twitter, a handful of poker players and management from PokerStars and Amaya agreed to meet at Amaya headquarters in Montreal to discuss the recent debate about the PokerStars VIP Club changes. The players attending meeting were some of online poker’s most notables, Isaac “Ike” Haxton, Dani “Ansky” Stern and Daniel Dvoress. PokerStars Team Pro Daniel Negreanu was also present in the meeting.
After the meeting, Negreanu granted an interview to calvinayre.com, where he answered some questions regarding the meeting.
Daniel summarizes the meeting:
“It was a long meeting. It started around noon. I had a 7 pm flight, and they were still going when I left. We covered a broad range of topics. All things online poker, and the current and future state of the ecosystem. Overall, I think it was very productive. The players raised some interesting points of view and the presentation from PokerStars was very informative.
“The players signed an NDA, so they can’t talk about the specifics on the numbers of how the company is doing, or specifics about the ecosystem. So from that perspective, there isn’t a lot to share. What is important is the players left the meeting after seeing with their own eyes that changes were necessary. It’s debatable whether Stars made the right changes, but I don’t think there is any question that anyone who saw the numbers would have disagreed that changes were necessary.”
Negreanu states about the agenda:
To be clear, the meeting was not a negotiation. Both sides knew that. Both sides knew the changes were going ahead. We did discuss the broken promise and the breach of trust from PokerStars. For most people the approach that angered them the most was us saying players were warned. I don’t think that’s fair. We are sorry because we screwed up.
The goal of the meeting was to show the players in attendance what position we are in as a company. It was to show that the changes had to happen now rather than a year from now because the dangers of them happening a year from now outweighed the fact that a two-year promotional promise was going to be reneged upon to some degree.
To the question whether the online players left the meeting happy, Negreanu shared his view:
I wasn’t there until the end, but it seemed like everyone was happy. There was no resentment or anger. It was a very positive meeting from both side’s perspectives. Points were contested from both sides. Let’s call them healthy debates.
The online players, however, do not agree with this view:
I do not agree with @RealKidPoker assessment that we "left happy." https://t.co/B5EnRQersF
— Dani Stern (@TheRealAnsky) January 21, 2016
Fundamentally, the #1 issue was left unchanged, the deception of SN+. By far the most tense moment happened after @RealKidPoker left.
— Dani Stern (@TheRealAnsky) January 21, 2016
We made it clear we do not think the poker community views that as simply a "communication error," and they didn't really fight us on that.
— Dani Stern (@TheRealAnsky) January 21, 2016
The meeting was civil and courteous but yielded no progress for players. I didn't "go away happy." @RealKidPoker https://t.co/in0AXGQqw3
— Isaac Haxton (@ikepoker) January 21, 2016
I'm not as positive as @RealKidPoker implies about the meeting. I only agree that some data implies changes were necessary.
— Daniel Dvoress (@DDvoress) January 21, 2016
https://t.co/CtEGncT3Wp … @RealKidPoker While I truly appreciate meeting happening, it's unfair 2 assess how we felt @ end w/o being present
— Daniel Dvoress (@DDvoress) January 21, 2016
To the question whether the meetings will continue, Negreanu answered:
“I know they will. David {Baazov} loved the idea of me facilitating meetings with the players. It won’t necessarily be the same guys.