A Little History of the WSOP

The World Series of Poker is the most anticipated and prestigious event in the poker world. It has grown so massively in popularity during the recent years that people tend to forget that it’s been around for a very long time. A small minority of today’s poker players were involved in the game back when the WSOP first started, compared to the number of players who have jumped onto the scene in the past couple years of the “poker craze.”
The most recent years have seen several thousand people trying to make themselves into a poker icon, prove they’re the “next best thing,” or build some quick income off its popularity. Countless web sites have sprung up, and it has become a sort of fad; a televised circus and popularity contest where yesterday’s “nobodies” may possibly turn into the next poker superstar, complete with a sponsorship deal from an energy drink or online poker site. Despite all of this, the WSOP originated when playing poker was taken very seriously; it was about the card game instead of all the other extraneous influences.
In its glory days, men smoked cigars, drank whisky and sized up their opponents on the felt. In the 1940’s, it was a game where you’d find world class gamblers like Nicolas Dandolos (also known as Nick the Greek) and Benny Binion. It’s no surprise that Nick the Greek approached Binion with the idea of creating a world class poker match. Nick decided to challenge the proclaimed champion of all poker players, Johnny Moss.
Benny Binion agreed to this plan and arranged the match between Dandolos and Moss. Binion had one important clause to the deal; he wanted to attract as much attention as possible to the event by making it public. It would be on display for anyone interested to watch and portrayed as a poker marathon. After being in the works for five months, everyone involved came to a compromise and proceeded with the match. And so the World Series of Poker was born in 1949. It was a long, intense battle where the poker players only took short sleep breaks. Johnny Moss was crowned the winner, and earned a prize of around $2 million in cash which, in 1949, amounted to the approximate value of an entire casino!
In 1970, nearly twenty one years later, Benny Binion decided to try this style of poker match once again. This time around he officially named this poker battle the World Series of Poker (WSOP). And once again, Johnny Moss came out the winner and was awarded top prize.
Benny Binion had created something he knew was truly special in the poker world. The World Series of Poker continued annually from that point forward. By 1982, 104 top professional poker players registered and played the WSOP. Fast forwarding to 2010, at the height of poker pandemonium, every poker player out there believes he or she is the next poker legend in the making. Last year, there were 6,494 people entered into the main event. This year will bring even more poker players to the WSOP in Las Vegas, possibly cracking the 8,000 mark.
One question remains: with the size of the WSOP increasing massively per year, has the quality changed? Many argue that, with the change of locale to the Rio and current ownership by Harrah’s Entertainment, there have been changes to the event that don’t necessarily benefit the participants. Others will debate that as the number of competitors grows, the player who manages to become the WSOP champion is truly the cream of the crop – using their skills to beat out thousands of tough opponents in order to earn the title. One thing is for sure though – the World Series of Poker is still the biggest, most anticipated poker tournament for any poker player wishing to become something significant in today’s poker world.

Dante Brickman
Poker player/blogger
bricklv@gmail.com
twitter.com/bricklv

Victory Poker – Don’t waste your time

On Monday February 1st, a new online poker community launched called Victory Poker, as part of the Everleaf Gaming network. I was offered a 300% deposit bonus by Las Vegas Poker Source if I used the code “LVPS”, so I figured I might as well give this new online poker room a try. After all, that is one hefty bonus and a new poker site is always, without fail, full of fish.

Downloading the software and depositing money was a snap. The software is pretty high quality, smooth running, aesthetically pleasing and user friendly. The deposit bonus is set up in a slow release format, so that you earn it as you play instead of having a deadline that you have to meet to earn it. This is the second biggest plus of playing on Victory Poker – I like that I can take my time and still receive such a nice welcome bonus from them. They do offer rakeback at 40% if you’d rather take this option, but for me personally, I liked the choice of the large deposit bonus better.

What is the biggest plus of playing on Victory Poker? Wow, was I right on the money about the players! One word description = horrible. A new poker site tends to attract anyone and everyone, and whether or not they actually know how to play the game of poker is irrelevant. They just need somewhere to put their money, and if they’re getting anywhere near the nice deposit bonus I received, you can bet that they’ll tell all their bad “poker player” friends about Victory Poker as well.

I made a killing playing both sit and go tournaments and .25/.50 cash table. It was literally effortless to beat this group of complete donkeys who joined Victory Poker this week. And I didn’t see the amount of bad beat suck outs on Victory Poker that I do on Full Tilt and PokerStars on what seems like a constant basis. Haven’t tried out any MTTs yet, because it seems I have found my winning lottery ticket for the week just playing SNGs and the low stakes cash tables.

However, as with all dreams, they must come to an end eventually. I can estimate that this trend will wear off within a couple weeks, as more good poker players out there will learn about Victory Poker and their bonus and rakeback offers, so I plan on making bank over the next few days while I can still take advantage of the money that seems to be falling from the virtual sky. So anyone out there who actually knows how to play poker, or is a seasoned professional, please stay away from Victory Poker long enough for me to be able to earn money to pay my mortgage for the next year. I’d appreciate it!

Dante Brickman
Poker player/blogger
bricklv@gmail.com
twitter.com/bricklv

Victory Poker, Who’s Your Daddy, and The Man Behind it All

Victory Poker, the newest online poker community, opened its virtual doors to the public on Monday February 1, 2010. The idea for this revolutionary new poker site came from the mind of 28 year-old Dan Fleyshman. Fleyshman has ten years of experience in owning and promoting multiple businesses (including a successful energy drink), and is very serious and passionate about his newest venture into online poker. He sat down the night of the project’s official launch to discuss everything having to do with Victory Poker with Las Vegas Poker Source.

Las Vegas Poker Source: Give us a little bit of background on yourself.

Dan Fleyshman: I trademarked the phrase “Who’s your Daddy” at age 17 and did $15 million in sales for products with that catch phrase. At age 23 I became the youngest owner ever of a publicly traded company and launched an energy drink. I drove the drink up the ranks to its current status of number 7 out of 900 energy drinks. In addition to doing all of that for 10 years, I had won a half dozen poker championships and decided it was time to explore that passion.

LVPS: What other companies do you own and operate?

DF: I resigned as president and hired a staff to take over the energy drink, so I am focusing on Victory Poker now.

LVPS: So you’re a poker player – what games/stakes do you like to play and at which casino in Las Vegas do you prefer to play poker?

DF: I really enjoy the feel of the Hard Rock Poker Lounge. I play $10/$20 and $25/$50 No Limit Holdem and $25/$50 Pot Limit Omaha.

LVPS: You mentioned you have some live poker accomplishments under your belt.

DF: Yes. I won the CEO Poker Championship in 2006 at the Palms, the 10k buy-in Chip Leader Challenge and the Canadian Poker Tour main event $2500 buy-in, both at Hard Rock.

LVPS: So why did you choose online poker as your next big business venture?

DF: The larger sites like Full Tilt and PokerStars have become very much like IBM or Apple; they have become massive and I wanted to create a more personal experience for poker players. And I want our poker pros to feel involved with team decisions, promotions, and anything else they come up with to make Victory Poker a great place to play online poker.

LVPS: From the original concept to the launch, what was the total time line for the project?

DF: We put this together in 96 days. Everything was fast forwarded due to my previous experience in owning a business. I knew exactly what attorneys to go with, which poker pros I wanted to approach, solid business associates, etc. I gave myself a February 1st deadline to have this ready to go and here we are, right on time!

LVPS: Who else is involved at the top of Victory Poker?

DF: I am the sole owner. Joe Navarro and Sam Chauhan are two of the consultants for the company.

LVPS: Who are some of the affiliates/site partners for Victory Poker?

DF: Victory Poker will be sponsoring the Canadian Poker Tour, World Poker Showdown, and High Stakes DB. We are currently advertising with Coinflip, Card Player, Bluff, Poker Player, and Poker Pro in Canada, Europe and America.

LVPS: What network is Victory Poker a part of and how did you decide to go with them?

DF: We operate on the Everleaf Network, which merged with UPN Network, and will soon come up with a new name. The merger tripled them in size. Red Planet Gaming created the Everleaf software. They won 2008 and 2009 International Gaming award for their software. Their CO, Vahe Baloulian, has a great reputation in the poker community. It was a good fit, because I wanted to have a company I could trust who I could talk to every day if needed. They are also the only network with an EU license that accepts US Players.

LVPS: Who are the poker professionals on board with your new site? What were they offered to entice them to choose your brand of online poker?

DF: Antonio Esfandiari, David Chicotsky, Brian Rast, Andrew Robl, Keith Gipson, Paul Wasicka, Lee Markholt, Danny Wong, Sander Lylloff, Alec Torelli, Dan Blizerian, and Sara Underwood. These professional poker players joined because they get to be an advisor to the “team” instead of being one of a hundred or more pros who simply wears a logo or shows up in the Sunday major events. Our team of pro players gets to learn about a business and be an integral part of it, create their own promotions, and more to be revealed soon.

LVPS: What will you offer players that will give you an edge over the competition?

DF: We have a 300% deposit bonus for up to $1500 initial deposit, and it is “slow release,” meaning you earn it as you play instead of being pressured into having to achieve it in a short time frame. We plan on giving away training with David “The Maven” Chicotsky, Vegas trips, tickets to come party with Antonio Esfandiari, seats to dinner parties with the Victory Poker Team, Win a Date with Playmate, Rake Races where we fly the top 10 winners out to Vegas to train with the team, and much more. We want to give away something besides just “seats” to events like all the other online sites already does. Victory Poker strives to be different from everyone else by offering “experiences” to our loyal poker players.

LVPS: What challenges did you face in the creation of this new poker product?

DF: Well mainly we’re competing with existing multi-billion dollar online poker companies, but I am already used to that from the energy drink. Competing against Red Bull was hard too, but I’m a realist – I never expected people to stop drinking Red Bull and drink mine instead. I fully expect that people will still play on Full Tilt and PokerStars, but I want to offer them an additional fun place to play poker.

Of course, getting all the legal aspects set up correctly so as not to upset the government, make sure all laws are followed, and ensuring that licensing is correct…those are all major steps to getting this started, and none of it is easy, but I was fortunate enough to have dealt with it all before.

LVPS: Will Victory Poker be a presence at live poker events as well? How do you plan on making yourselves known?

DF: Yes, most definitely. We have a charity event for Sharon Osbourne’s Colon Cancer Foundation coming up on Feb 6th at Hard Rock, a Haiti event planned in Los Angeles on Mar 6 at W Hotel, just to name two. We plan to be very active with charity and invite plenty of media to these events. The goal is to create a bond with the media and poker community and to shed a positive light on poker for a change.

LVPS: Do you see the UIGEA being overturned anytime soon? What is your opinion on the whole online poker front?

DF: Prohibition doesn’t work – people will play poker whether they’re “allowed to” or not. The government could benefit from the taxing. It is the easiest business to tax in the world due to tracking hand histories. Online poker players absolutely cannot lie on their taxes about poker, so it would be very easy for the government to track, organize and audit. This is an aspect no one talks about. There is no downside to it for the government or economy, and people will pay this tax because they enjoy playing poker.

LVPS: Do you have any advice for people out there who want to become an entrepreneur like yourself?

DF: Your network is most important, because you can have all the drive and hard work in the world, but you need connections, help and deals. “Going for it” is fun, but you have to have a rhyme and reason for everything and proper funding or else you’ll learn expensive lessons the hard way. Be open for advice, hire attorneys, and have accountants. It is easier to start everything correctly than to have to go back two years later and fix it all.

Business life is so much easier with the onslaught of social media – take advantage! There are 40+ sites out there aside from the obvious ones. Use all of them, because they’re typically free and spread you in as many directions as possible.

LVPS: What would be your main mission in this new poker venture?

DF: We want to bring back the true essence of poker. The Victory Poker team “lives” poker. They live and breathe, learn and discuss, and play poker every single day. We know what the poker player wants; this is not just another site. We plan on being around for the long haul and being a major force in the online poker world.

Download the Victory Poker software today at victorypoker.com and begin playing poker among the best. Use bonus code “LVPS” to get a 300% deposit bonus up to $1500. Visit lasvegaspokersource.com for information on poker tournaments, major poker events and more in Las Vegas.

Stacey Lynn
staceylynn702@gmail.com
Twitter: @pokerstacey

http://lasvegaspokersource.com