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Global Poker Switches From PayPal To WorldPay For Deposits And Cashouts

The sweepstakes model online poker operator, Global Poker, is changing its primary payment processor from PayPal to WorldPay. PayPal transactions at the site ended on June 30.

Global Poker’s proprietary game format is available across the US, and it has built its player base by offering what other operators have been unable to do: ring game online poker with winnings that can be cashed out.

Right from inception, Global Poker only offered PayPal as a means of both depositing and withdrawing. The company spent a long time on due diligence to reassure PayPal that the business model was legal in the US but the single payment method was limiting for players.

CEO Laurence Escalante referenced explained why the company was making the change:

“One thing our customers have made clear to us is that they would like more choice when it comes to payment methods. Worldpay’s extensive network and vast expertise allow us to give our players this choice.”

WorldPay offers a huge variety of payment and withdrawal options which should mean that existing players will not have any difficulty with the transition. However, PayPal was lauded for the speed and efficiency of its service, so WorldPay has big shoes to fill in taking over the responsibility.

One player’s post on 2+2 provides a typical experience:

“Did my first cashout from global (and no, I didn’t reach $5K, just needed the $500 for my trip to my kids graduation for her master’s of economics)

From request, to requesting docs, to approving docs, to the money sitting in my PayPal account, less than 24 hours. So cash out was legit pokerstars level service. I wish the software was pokerstars level, but still very happy overall with the site, and it hasn’t been shut down, so that’s a plus!”

For players outside Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey who didn’t want to take the uncertainty of playing at offshore unlicensed poker rooms, Global Poker has been a lifeline that has allowed them to experience the fun of online poker without financial risk.

The Global Poker Sweepstakes Model

Global Poker offers cash games and tournament poker in two on-site currencies; $weeps Cash and Gold Coins.

Gold Coins work in the same way as play money on a traditional poker site. Players who want more chips can buy additional Gold Coins. As with play money, winnings from playing at the Gold Coin tables can never be cashed out.

The Global Poker difference is that every purchase of Gold Coins credits a player’s account with an amount of $weeps Cash. This can be used at the $weeps Cash tables to play ring games and tournaments. Winnings at the $weeps Cash tables can be cashed out.

$weeps Cash is considered to be “bonus sweepstakes prizes” and so Global Poker avoids being classified as gambling.

No purchase is necessary to play

Regular promotions on Global Poker’s Facebook page offer the chance to win $weeps Cash directly, and players who don’t want to wait to win their stake can write directly to Global Poker and be given some $weeps Cash for free.

Global Poker is owned by an Australian company

Global Poker is owned by Virtual Gaming Worlds (VGW) which launched Chumba Casino in 2012 using the same sweepstake model.

VGW’s audited interim accounts for the six months to December 31, 2017 show company revenue soaring to $155.6 million compared to $37.8 million in the same period in 2016. Profits for the second half of 2017 came in at $4.7 million, and the company is now looking at an IPO with a listing on the main ASX stock exchange.

The business model may be unusual, but it’s certainly working. Leaving PayPal may make players concerned about the loss of a familiar name, but with WorldPay as a partner Global Poker is looking for even more growth in 2018.

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Chance Kornuth Takes Down WSOP.com High Roller Event

Chance Kornuth secures his second bracelet, and with it, becomes the second player in WSOP history to win a bracelet live and online.

The 49th World Series of Poker set multiple field records and Event #63: $3,200 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold’em High Roller was no exception. Saturday evening brought 480 entries to beat the 424 entries the prior year.

In just under 12 hours, Kornuth defeated all of them for the $341,598 and a gold bracelet. With 356 unique entries and 124 rebuys, the prize pool came in at $1,459,200. Of that, 63 walked away with a prize.

Kornuth went heads-up with David ‘bewater’ Goodman to claim the title. Kornuth finished with a set of sixes while Goodman held a pair of tens on a king-high, three club board, reported WSOP.com.

Here are the final table results:

  1. Chance ‘BingShui’ Kornuth ($341,598)
  2. David ‘bewater’ Goodman ($212,021)
  3. Timothy ‘poker.’ Nuter ($144,168)
  4. Noah ‘ThePunter’ Bronstein ($99,809)
  5. Frank ‘flcrivello’ Crivello ($70,625)
  6. Taylor ‘ReadyGambo’ Black ($50,926)
  7. Justin ‘kingfortune’ Liberto ($37,355)
  8. Jonas ‘LobyPewis’ Macoff ($28,016)
  9. Pete ‘petechen’ Chen ($21,596)

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Win wraps online bracelet events

This event was the last bracelet event on the online schedule. Of the four events, there are some notable records:

First WSOP.com event: the largest field online tournament in the regulated US online marketplace (2,972), the largest online tournament held in Nevada

Second WSOP.com event: the first WSOP.com win outside Nevada the first online pot-limit Omaha event

Third WSOP.com event: largest no-limit hold’em championship

Fourth WSOP.com event: second player to win bracelet live and online, record field

Kornuth’s journey to WSOP.com title

Kornuth is a Colorado native and Las Vegas resident. He’s a poker pro and the founder of Chip Leader Coaching.

He took his first bracelet in 2010 in a $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event.

Kornuth joins Nipun Java as the only online winner to have a live bracelet as well. Java was part of a $1,000 tag team at the WSOP last year and won the $1,000 online championship shortly thereafter.

Kornuth is no stranger to big wins: his total live earnings come in at $6,303,850 and his best live cash sits at $641,140, taking third in the 2015 PCA No Limit Hold’em Main Event.

The one-day unlimited re-entry event started with 25,000 in starting chips, with 20-minute levels, and with late registration available for four hours. Players registered for this event online via WSOP.com Nevada and New Jersey and were played entirely on those clients.

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Is The WSOP Marketing Poker To Kids With Its New Mascot Chippy?

The World Series of Poker and its often-ridiculous marketing efforts reached epic new lows this week when a mascot was introduced to the public at the start of the 2018 WSOP Main Event.

Chippy is a six-foot-tall plush-foam stack of WSOP chips wearing over-sized novelty sunglasses and headphones. It has also got a crooked WSOP.com hat and a gold-grilled perma-smile.

However, WSOP Executive Director and Senior Vice President of Caesars Interactive Ty Stewart wants it made it clear Chippy is a gaming instrument. According to Stewart, Chippy is far from “a cute animal or reptile” designed to market gaming to minors.

But who else besides children is a smiling plush-foam mascot really meant to appeal to?

Ty Stewart’s personal pet project

Stewart says Chippy is a “personal pet project.” After trying every hair-brained marketing scheme from frisbee dogs to announcer Michael Buffer and his brother Bruce, he says Chippy represents real progress and a crowning achievement for the WSOP marketing team:

“The whole bevy of models thing has been done to death. A six foot tall three dimensional chip stack, that’s progress.”

Stewart believes people come to the WSOP for memories and to experience a little bit of what they’ve seen on TV. In his mind, the experience should be equal parts fun and ridiculousness:

“A mascot at a poker tournament feels a little ridiculous and that’s why I hope players will come to love him.”

He’s right about one thing. In fact, Chippy is ridiculous. However, Chippy isn’t really ridiculous in any kind of fun way.

The truth is, if Stewart and the WSOP didn’t want to be accused of marketing gaming to kids, they should probably have scrapped the entire idea of a mascot altogether. This is a pet project that should have been left in the shed out back.

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Disney characters are for kids

No matter how “gangsta” Stewart thinks the headphones and gold grill make Chippy, he’s still a smiling plush cartoon-style character. The kind that is usually only found at theme parks like Disneyland.

Even proud Pennsylvanian Stewart admits Chippy’s design was “subliminally influenced” by various Hersheypark characters.

Does he also believe Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and those Hershey characters are designed to bring adults to the parks? An estimated 250,000 people in the US with furry fetishes aside, that’s patently ridiculous. Mascots are for kids no matter how you spin it.

Plans are to use Chippy in all sorts of ways. The character will greet fans and appear on live Twitch streams on WSOP.com. Plus, the new mascot will be part of a special promotion, inviting the public to take a selfie with Chippy.

Can children’s birthday parties and the resulting Nevada Gaming Control Board fines be far behind? Or, will the WSOP get wise and put the Chippy costume away, before it lands the organization in real hot water.

Photo by fiz_zero / Shutterstock.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It’s Time For The Poker Hall Of Fame To Induct A Non-Player

The time has come for the Poker Hall of Fame to induct someone who has done something more for the game than just play it.

Induction criteria does include a stipulation for non-players. Essentially, the person must have contributed to the overall growth and success of the game, with indelible positive and lasting results.

They’ve used this criteria before. The last time a non-player was inducted was 2014. Legendary tournament director and poker room boss Jack McClelland got in. McClelland ran the World Series of Poker in the 1980s. He also managed of the vaunted Bellagio poker room for more than a decade, before hanging it up in 2013.

Other non-players who have been inducted include the WSOP tournament director from 1973 to 1988 Eric Drache (2012), and hole-card cam inventor Henry Orenstein (2008). Plus, the WSOP’s first host Jack Binion (2005), and his father, the founder of the Horseshoe Casino and the WSOP, Benny Binion (1990).

The First Lady of Poker, Linda Johnson, is clearly a player, having won a WSOP bracelet in the 1997 WSOP $1,500 Seven Card Razz event.

However, she was likely inducted in 2011 on the strength of her contributions to the overall growth and success of the game. She worked as CardPlayer Magazine‘s publisher, helped found the Tournament Director’s Association and was the public relations director for the World Poker Tour.

Two non-players on the nominations list

In 2017, two non-players made the nominations list. However, consensus best player on the planet Phil Ivey got in, alongside recently deceased UK legend David ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott. No one could really argue against either.

Tournament director Matt Savage and TV producer Mori Eskandani are back on the nominations list again this year, and the timing seems right to recognize what these guys have done for the game.

Savage’s continuous presence on Twitter makes him one of the most recognizable non-players in poker. He is the WPT’s executive tour director, helped found the Tournament Directors Association, and ran the WSOP the year Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event, changing poker forever.

Eskandani is the man behind some of poker’s best TV. He runs Poker Productions and is responsible for shows like Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker, and The National Heads-Up Championship. Now he produces the live WSOP broadcast for ESPN.

Both have both helped shape the game of poker into what it is today and it seems appropriate that the Poker Hall of Fame recognize that.

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Eight players make the list

There are eight players on this year’s nominations list as well, including:

  • John Hennigan
  • David Oppenheim
  • Chris Bjorin
  • David Chiu
  • Bruno Fitoussi
  • Mike Matusow
  • Chris Moneymaker
  • Huck Seed

All are great players worthy of the nomination. However, none have done more for the growth of the game than Eskandani or Savage.

Of course, the living members of the Poker Hall of Fame and the media panel that votes new members in may feel the need to induct a player. If that’s the case, they may lean towards Matusow. He is certainly a name the public will recognize and ticks off most of the boxes on the criteria list.

However, if they absolutely must induct a player over a non-player, perhaps they should look back on Johnson’s 2011 induction and pick one that’s a little of both.

The 2003 WSOP Main Event Champion

In 2003, a 27-year-old accountant and amateur poker player from Tennessee changed poker forever when he beat the pros at their game, satelliting into the WSOP Main Event through a $39 PokerStars tournament and winning it all.

Chris Moneymaker continues to play professionally and now has more than $3.7 million in tournament earnings.

There are those that would argue he hasn’t exactly spent the 15 years since his win putting together a Hall of Fame career. However, his story helped sell the game to the masses and turn poker into what it is today. Plus, he’s continued to play the poker ambassador role as well as anyone else in the game for the better part of 15 years.

Moneymaker’s contribution to the overall growth and success of the game has definitely had indelible positive and lasting results. Combining that with his success as a player should be enough to get him in.

Particularly in a year where it just seems right for the Poker Hall of Fame to induct someone who has done more for the game than just beat it.

Lead image courtesy of the World Poker Tour/Flickr.

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