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Sponsorship.The Unpublished Blog
Some of you will remember back in the autumn i did a series of 'blogs' here on SkyPoker and enjoyed writing about moments, and times from previous live tournament experiences in casinos and abroad ..
What I can add is, about 'sponsorship' ? Being sponsored by a company or an individual or a syndicate.
Back in the autumn i was going to write a blog about my experience as a sponsored player but at that time I was writing about lighthearted stuff and the truth was this subject appeared a bit heavy... So in the light of the new promotion 'Total Player' by Skypoker, to offer a great deal for three lucky players to go to the WSOP main event , here's my take and experiences..
Yes I have had a couple of great sponsorship deals, one from an old poker buddy who ive know for many years as a player and now a successful business man, and we had some success at Luton where I won four tournaments , two were in the early part of this year.
My other sponsorship deal was a bit of a disaster as i never really read the terms and conditions properly, and i don't think it's going to upset anyone when i say it was with 'Bad-Beat' a well know company who have a stable of very good players throughout the country, "The Guv" as I call him John Connolly is one of the nicest people you could ever meet and a very very good player in his own rite.
What made that a disaster was, as i said, i didn't read everything and although at the beginning I was second rake earner for them in my first month. What they did was to deposited cash into my account and i got 50% of winnings , nice work if you can get it ? or is it ?
This also earned me a free entry into a 400 pound online tournament and this is what I didn't know. I had already planned to play the the main event in the Gala festival in Bournemouth. That was a fantastic event , where I met up again with our old skypoker player and analyst Norman Pace and his lovely wife Bev ..
However the problem happened when I was in the middle of a hand when my mobile phone rang, it was 'Bad-Beat' on the phone asking me what was happening as I was being 'anti-ed-away' in the online tournament ?
OOPS I had to tell them I was sorry but I'm playing Live in Bournemouth and didn't know about it , so I think that didn't go down well as I had not told them about my plans and obviously they had lost money at my expense!
However this brings me back to the downside of sponsorship. In most cases your expected to play either 40 hours a week and keep in profit every week, if you do that you deal gets bigger if you have a losing week the deal gets smaller.
Now look at this from two ways, if you have to get a living ,mortgage, car and all the bills that go into running a home the your under pressure from the start, and a bad -run of cards that everyone goes through from time to time could end in disaster an for a lot of sponsored players it does..
For me, I was working and enjoying being assistant greyhound trainer and felt committing to a online schedule would end up being dull and me getting stale and not playing for fun but trying to grind a profit and that's just not for me.
The problem with my mate's sponsorship was, he got more involved with other players creating a stable and suddenly found with extra players he was not getting a return on his outlay and stopped it all..
The thing about all of this is, yes there are sponsors out there, we even know a couple here at Sky, but it's a big commitment from both yourself and the sponsor and for you, you need to know that in chasing a dream you have to be good at what your doing and be totally committed to online poker !! For me I'm not, I play online for fun and entertainment and if i'm honest I don't concentrate especially if there's a good film on TV or X factor . How ever if I play live, thats different I'm an altogether a different animal in that arena, where you have real 'tells' and 'real players' , it's a different world altogether ..
So what about the TP (Total Player) here on Skypoker, well on the face of it it looks great, some details seem a bit sketchy , however we all have to be aware that in trying to catch the eye of the 'mentor' we aren't over spending and trying to hard.
Ultimately what you also need to know is, just play what ever games you normally play and carry on enjoying the game, I feel some will be disappointed but look it as a lottery ticket, your chances might be better than that but at the end of the day there are only going to be three winners ..
Get YOUR priority's right and if the poker fairy sit 's with you, well who knows , you might just get lucky.. .. good luck all benny
What I can add is, about 'sponsorship' ? Being sponsored by a company or an individual or a syndicate.
Back in the autumn i was going to write a blog about my experience as a sponsored player but at that time I was writing about lighthearted stuff and the truth was this subject appeared a bit heavy... So in the light of the new promotion 'Total Player' by Skypoker, to offer a great deal for three lucky players to go to the WSOP main event , here's my take and experiences..
Yes I have had a couple of great sponsorship deals, one from an old poker buddy who ive know for many years as a player and now a successful business man, and we had some success at Luton where I won four tournaments , two were in the early part of this year.
My other sponsorship deal was a bit of a disaster as i never really read the terms and conditions properly, and i don't think it's going to upset anyone when i say it was with 'Bad-Beat' a well know company who have a stable of very good players throughout the country, "The Guv" as I call him John Connolly is one of the nicest people you could ever meet and a very very good player in his own rite.
What made that a disaster was, as i said, i didn't read everything and although at the beginning I was second rake earner for them in my first month. What they did was to deposited cash into my account and i got 50% of winnings , nice work if you can get it ? or is it ?
This also earned me a free entry into a 400 pound online tournament and this is what I didn't know. I had already planned to play the the main event in the Gala festival in Bournemouth. That was a fantastic event , where I met up again with our old skypoker player and analyst Norman Pace and his lovely wife Bev ..
However the problem happened when I was in the middle of a hand when my mobile phone rang, it was 'Bad-Beat' on the phone asking me what was happening as I was being 'anti-ed-away' in the online tournament ?
OOPS I had to tell them I was sorry but I'm playing Live in Bournemouth and didn't know about it , so I think that didn't go down well as I had not told them about my plans and obviously they had lost money at my expense!
However this brings me back to the downside of sponsorship. In most cases your expected to play either 40 hours a week and keep in profit every week, if you do that you deal gets bigger if you have a losing week the deal gets smaller.
Now look at this from two ways, if you have to get a living ,mortgage, car and all the bills that go into running a home the your under pressure from the start, and a bad -run of cards that everyone goes through from time to time could end in disaster an for a lot of sponsored players it does..
For me, I was working and enjoying being assistant greyhound trainer and felt committing to a online schedule would end up being dull and me getting stale and not playing for fun but trying to grind a profit and that's just not for me.
The problem with my mate's sponsorship was, he got more involved with other players creating a stable and suddenly found with extra players he was not getting a return on his outlay and stopped it all..
The thing about all of this is, yes there are sponsors out there, we even know a couple here at Sky, but it's a big commitment from both yourself and the sponsor and for you, you need to know that in chasing a dream you have to be good at what your doing and be totally committed to online poker !! For me I'm not, I play online for fun and entertainment and if i'm honest I don't concentrate especially if there's a good film on TV or X factor . How ever if I play live, thats different I'm an altogether a different animal in that arena, where you have real 'tells' and 'real players' , it's a different world altogether ..
So what about the TP (Total Player) here on Skypoker, well on the face of it it looks great, some details seem a bit sketchy , however we all have to be aware that in trying to catch the eye of the 'mentor' we aren't over spending and trying to hard.
Ultimately what you also need to know is, just play what ever games you normally play and carry on enjoying the game, I feel some will be disappointed but look it as a lottery ticket, your chances might be better than that but at the end of the day there are only going to be three winners ..
Get YOUR priority's right and if the poker fairy sit 's with you, well who knows , you might just get lucky.. .. good luck all benny
Comments
Great advice Benny, interesting read as always x
One other thing , with live play the game is so much slower and you have all the time in the world , the main thing being after an opponent has made a big bet, live you have 2 minutes thinking time to act .... ... Online say here, it's maximum 15 secs if you lucky, or with bad connection it can be 5 seconds or maybe 2 or even timed out before you can press a button !!
So for me the real game is Live and un sponsored, and always play for fun with no pressures
thanks again Benny
Hi Benny,
I really enjoyed your post too, thank you, I have to mention though there is 1 winner with the Total Player promotion, 3 tournament entrys but that 1 player gets all 3 entrys [SPT, £1000 UK based and of course the $10000 WSOP MAIN EVENT PACKAGE]
Catch you soon Ed.
But then thats me as I said in the post,
"I never read the terms and conditions properly" !! "doh"
Thanks again, and good luck in your adventure, it looks exciting and great fun
Cheers!!