Why big money goes viral in poker
In the Community Weekly Round-up, Barry Carter looks at why Dan Bilzerian and One Drop have attracted so much mainstream media attention.
So far in 2014 perhaps there are perhaps two stories that have broken out of poker and gone mainstream. That would be Dan Bilzerian becoming an internet celebrity and more recently, the $1 million Conor Drinan One Drop beat.
What do both stories have in common?
Money.
Lots of things can cause something to go viral online, and usually it involves sparking 'active' emotions like anger, joy, outrage or frustration (Rather than more passive emotions like sadness, pride, contentment etc).
In poker I personally have observed that any story involving big money amounts (So a seven-figure buy-in tournament or a poker player who spends more money in a weekend on hookers than most nation's defence budgets) gets shared, viewed and commented on more than any other.
It completely makes sense too. I don't care how rich you are, watching someone lose $1 million with Aces is shocking. When you see Dan Bilzerian boasting about $50 million wins, one third of the public (myself included) probably question whether it's true, another third are horrified that someone like him can be so rich, and a final third probably aspire to be just like him.
When it comes to huge money swings among poker players - everyone has an opinion.
I'm not saying we should market the game exclusively based on the false promise of riches for all, because one of the great appeals of poker is it's accessibility for micro stakes level players, but it is probably very important for those of us who promote the game to take notice that this is one way poker can infiltrate the mainstream. For this reason, One Drop is probably a much bigger mainstream marketing success for the game than maybe the Main Event itself.
It seems old and dated now, but I remember how excited the poker world (myself included) was when Daniel Negreanu and Gus Hansen played the infamous Quads vs Full House pot for a record breaking $575,000. It was jaw dropping for me at the time, that amount of money seemed impossible to even consider, which is precisely what made it so fascinating.
When was the last time your head exploded at the amounts of money some people play for? Have we in the poker community become desensitised to events the size of One Drop now? Let me know your views in the comments box.
Thread of the week
Anyone who knows me knows I am a hardcore nerd for the current wave of fantastic HBO/AMC box set type TV shows, and luckily for me a thread has started on this topic.
I need a new TV series is the place to go for suggestions for those of you wanting to binge watch the next big show.
And while we are on the topic, if you watch any of these shows you will be a very happy person: Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Sopranos, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Fargo, The Leftovers, True Detective.
LOL of the week
Oh man does this look bad. I didn't think it was possible to make a poker movie worse than the current crop we have, but Steven Seagal has managed to lower the bar with this one:
Running Hot
Maybe the biggest thing to happen this week was our new redesign of our news pages. It's nice and responsive (But wow, it's been hard work getting used to it for us writers). Also this week:
- Our very own Pleno1 clashed with Phil Ivey.
- Should staked players pay their backers bonuses?
- There is still time to Level Up!
- It's the last day for our Software Summer Sale.
- Check out the best promotions in August.
Stay tuned this coming week for some exclusive new freerolls and added prizes to our iPad promotion.
